At least 19 people were injured in the northern Israeli port city of Haifa as Iran fired a fresh barrage of missiles on Friday afternoon, authorities said. Iran has been launching daily missile salvos at Israel for the past week since a wide-ranging Israeli attack on its nuclear and military facilities triggered war.One projectile slammed into an area by the docks in Haifa on Friday afternoon where it damaged a building and blew out windows, littering the ground with rubble, AFP images showed.Israel’s foreign ministry said it struck “next to” the Al-Jarina mosque.The locations of missile strikes in Israel are subject to strict military censorship rules and are not always provided in detail to the public.   A spokesman for Haifa’s Rambam hospital said 19 people had been injured in the city, with one in a serious condition.A military official said that “approximately 20 missiles were launched towards Israel” in the latest Iranian salvo.More than 450 missiles have been fired at the country so far, along with about 400 drones, according to Israel’s National Public Diplomacy Directorate. The directorate added that the country’s tax authority had received over 25,000 claims linked to damage caused to buildings during the war.Israel launched a massive wave of strikes on June 13, triggering an immediate retaliation from Tehran.Residential areas in both countries have suffered, while Israel and Iran have traded accusations of targeting civilians.At least 25 people have been killed in Israel by Iranian missile strikes, according to authorities.Iran said on Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians. It has not updated the toll since.

The US Supreme Court cleared the way on Friday for American victims of attacks in Israel and the occupied West Bank to sue Palestinian authorities for damages in US courts.The court issued a unanimous 9-0 decision in a long-running case involving the jurisdiction of US federal courts to hear lawsuits against the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).Americans killed or injured in attacks in Israel or the West Bank or their relatives have filed a number of suits seeking damages.In one 2015 case, a jury awarded $655 million in damages and interest to US victims of attacks which took place in the early 2000s.Appeals courts had dismissed the suits on jurisdiction grounds.Congress passed a law in 2019 — the Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act (PSJVTA) — that would make the PLO and PA subject to US jurisdiction if they were found to have made payments to the relatives of persons who killed or injured Americans.Two lower courts ruled that the 2019 law was a violation of the due process rights of the Palestinian authorities under the US Constitution but the Supreme Court ruled on Friday to uphold it.”The PSJVTA reasonably ties the assertion of federal jurisdiction over the PLO and PA to conduct that involves the United States and implicates sensitive foreign policy matters within the prerogative of the political branches,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote.The PA announced in February that it would end its system of payments to the families of those killed by Israel or held in Israeli prisons, responding to a long-standing request from Washington.In 2018, during his first term as US president, Donald Trump signed into law rules suspending financial assistance to the PA as long as it continued to pay benefits to Palestinians linked to “terrorist” entities, according to the criteria of the Israeli authorities.

Israel’s war against Iran, now in its second week, will be “prolonged”, military chief Eyal Zamir said Friday as the arch rivals traded fire and European powers held talks with the Islamic republic.”We must be ready for a prolonged campaign,” Zamir told Israelis in a video statement, eight days after his country launched a massive wave of strikes it said aimed at stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons — an ambition Tehran has denied.”We have embarked on the most complex campaign in our history to remove a threat of such magnitude,” said Zamir.”The campaign is not over. Although we have made significant achievements, difficult days still lie ahead.”Iran has responded with barrages of missiles and drones, which Israeli authorities say have killed at least 25 people.A hospital in the Israeli port of Haifa reported 19 injured, including one person in serious condition, after the latest Iranian salvo, which President Isaac Herzog said hit a mosque.Iran said on Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people since June 13, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians.As US President Donald Trump mulls the prospect of entering the war between the two foes, top diplomats from Britain, France and Germany were meeting with their Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi on Friday.French President Emmanuel Macron said the Europeans were “putting a diplomatic solution on the table”.On the ground, Israel’s military said it struck missile launchers in southwestern Iran after overnight air raids on dozens of targets including what it called a “nuclear weapons project” research and development centre.In Israel, sirens sounded in the afternoon after missiles were launched from Iran for the second time on Friday, with a military official saying that “approximately 20 missiles were launched towards Israel”.Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted military sites and air forces bases.- ‘Betrayal’ of diplomacy -Trump has said he will decide “within the next two weeks” whether to involve the United States in the fighting.Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy said “a window now exists within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution”, while agreeing with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that “Iran can never develop or acquire a nuclear weapon”.Western governments suspect Iran of seeking a nuclear weapons capability.The International Atomic Energy Agency said that while Iran is the only country without nuclear weapons to enrich uranium to 60 percent, there was no evidence it had all the components to make a functioning nuclear warhead.”So, saying how long it would take for them, it would be pure speculation because we do not know whether there was somebody… secretly pursuing these activities,” the agency’s chief Rafael Grossi told CNN.”We haven’t seen that and we have to say it.”France’s foreign ministry spokesperson Christophe Lemoine said that “military solutions are not long-term solutions” to ensure Iran respects its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.Addressing the UN Human Rights Council on Friday, Araghchi said Israel’s attacks were a “betrayal” of diplomatic efforts to reach a nuclear deal between Tehran and Washington.”We were attacked in the midst of an ongoing diplomatic process,” he said.In an interview with German publication Bild, Israel’s top diplomat Gideon Saar said he did not “particularly” believe in diplomacy with Iran.”All diplomatic efforts so far have failed,” said Saar, whose country had supported Trump’s 2018 decision to abandon a previous nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers.- ‘Madness’ -The UN Security Council convened on Friday for a second session on the conflict, which was requested by Iran with support from Russia, China and Pakistan, a diplomat told AFP on Wednesday.The escalating confrontation is quickly reaching “the point of no return”, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned on Friday, saying “this madness must end as soon as possible”.UN chief Antonio Guterres meanwhile pleaded with all sides to “give peace a chance”.Any US involvement in Israel’s campaign would be expected to involve the bombing of an  underground uranium enrichment facility in Fordo, using powerful bunker-busting bombs that no other country possesses.In Iran, people fleeing Israel’s attacks described frightening scenes and difficult living conditions, including food shortages.Government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said authorities had restricted internet access to avoid “problems” like cyberattacks.Iranian authorities have arrested a European “who sought to spy on sensitive areas of the country”, Tasnim news agency reported on Friday.Protests were held in Tehran and other cities after Friday prayers, with demonstrators chanting slogans in support of their leaders, state television showed.”I will sacrifice my life for my leader,” read a protester’s banner, a reference to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Switzerland announced it was temporarily closing its embassy in Tehran, adding that it would continue to fulfil its role representing US interests in Iran.burs-ser/ami/kir