Israel said on Friday it had struck Iran’s only functioning nuclear power plant on the Gulf coast, potentially a major escalation in its air war against Iran.

Israel has struck a number of Iranian nuclear targets since launching its attacks last week. But a strike on the Bushehr plant, which is located near Iran’s Arab Gulf neighbours and employs technicians from Russia, would be widely be seen as a big step.

An Israeli military spokesperson said on Thursday the military had struck nuclear sites in Bushehr, Isfahan, and Natanz, and continued to target additional facilities.

Bushehr is Iran’s only operating nuclear power plant. It uses Russian fuel that Russia then takes back when it is spent to reduce proliferation risk.

Iranian missiles hit an Israeli hospital overnight, as President Donald Trump kept the world guessing about whether the US would join Israel in airstrikes.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vowed to press on with Israel's biggest ever attack on Iran until his arch enemy’s nuclear programme is destroyed, said Tehran’s “tyrants” would pay the “full price”.

His Defence Minister Israel Katz said the military had been instructed to intensify strikes on strategic-related targets in Tehran in order to eliminate the threat to Israel and destabilise the “Ayatollah regime”.