TWO IRANIAN Nobel Peace Prize laureates called on Israel and Iran to stop exchanging fire and “choose dialogue over destruction” today.

Their comments followed the Iranian bombing of a hospital in Beersheba and residential buildings near Tel Aviv which wounded around 240 people, prompting Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz to say Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “should not continue to exist.”

The hospital said the main impact was on an old surgery building that had been evacuated in recent days. After the strike, the medical facility was closed to all patients except for life-threatening cases.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted a video of himself outside Soroka Medical Centre, claiming his military had “accurately hit nuclear targets and missile targets in Iran, while they [Iran] hit a hospital, where people can’t even get up and run away.

“That’s the whole difference in a democracy that acts according to the law to save itself from these murderers,” he said “and against these murderers who want to destroy each and every one of us.”

Israel has bombed at least 36 hospitals in Gaza since its genocidal war began in October 2023.

A Washington-based Iranian human rights group said Israel’s attacks on Iran have killed at least 639 people, including 263 civilians — and wounded more than 1,300.

Nobel Peace Prize laureates Narges Mohammadi and Shirin Ebadi called for the ceasefire on the Nobel Women’s Initiative website.

“This war, initiated by Israel in violation of international law, is already causing immense suffering and threatens to ignite a broader regional and global conflict,” they wrote.

“Civilians, including women and children, are being killed. We urge all parties — and the international community — to act now: stop the war and choose dialogue over destruction.”

Ms Mohammadi, who was awarded the the peace prize while in prison in 2023 for her fight against the oppression of women, said: “War must not decide our future. I call for peace, for the people of Iran, the region and the world.”

Iran’s foreign minister will meet in Geneva on Friday with counterparts from Germany, France and Britain, Iranian state media and European diplomats said today.

Palestinian Health officials said today that 84 people had been killed by Israeli attacks across Gaza.