Members of the Israeli security forces check the destruction in front of a residential building hit during an Iranian missile attack in Beersheba in southern Israel on Friday. — AFP 
JERUSALEM, June 20 (AFP): Israel's military said Friday it struck dozens of targets in Tehran overnight, including what it called a centre for the "research and development of Iran's nuclear weapons project," in the eighth day of war between the two foes.
In a statement, the army said it had "completed a series of strikes in the heart of Tehran: dozens of targets were struck, including military missile production sites and the SPND (Organisation of Defensive Innovation and Research) headquarters for research and development of Iran's nuclear weapons project."
Missiles fired from Iran on Friday left at least 19 people injured in the northern Israeli port of Haifa, a local hospital said, on the second week of war between the arch foes.
Iran has been firing daily missile salvos at Israel for the past week, since a wide-ranging Israeli attack on the Islamic Republic's nuclear installations and military bases triggered war.
At least one projectile appeared to evade Israel's air defences, slamming into an area by the docks of Haifa where it damaged a building and blew out windows, littering the nearby ground with rubble, AFP images showed.
A spokesman for the city's Rambam hospital said 19 people had been injured, with one in a serious condition.
According to the Israeli military the SPND headquarters "is used for research and development of advanced technologies and weapons supporting the Iranian regime's military capabilities."
The army said that during the night on Thursday more than 60 fighter jets struck dozens of military targets.
"Among the targets were sites producing missile components and facilities manufacturing raw materials used in casting missile engines," it added.
The military also said it intercepted overnight four UAVs launched from Iran.
In a separate statement, the army said on Friday it had hit "three ready-to-launch missile launchers aimed at Israeli territory".
Israel, claiming that Iran was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon, launched air strikes against its arch-enemy a week ago, triggering deadly exchanges.
European foreign ministers will hold talks Friday with their Iranian counterpart, hoping to reach a diplomatic solution to the war as US President Donald Trump mulls the prospect of US involvement.
Dozens of US military aircraft are no longer on the tarmac at a major US base in Qatar, satellite images show -- a possible move to shield them from eventual Iranian air strikes, as Washington weighs whether to intervene in Tehran's conflict with Israel.
Between June 5 and 19, nearly all of the aircraft visible at the Al Udeid base are no longer anywhere in plain sight, according to images published by Planet Labs PBC and analyzed by AFP.
Nearly 40 military aircraft -- including transport planes like the Hercules C-130 and reconnaissance aircraft -- were parked on the tarmac on June 5. In an image taken on June 19, only three aircraft are visible.
The US embassy in Qatar announced Thursday that access to the base would be limited "out of an abundance of caution and in light of ongoing regional hostilities," and urged personnel to "exercise increased vigilance."
The White House says US President Donald Trump will decide sometime in the next two weeks whether to join ally Israel's strikes on Iran. The Islamic republic could then respond by striking US bases in the region.
Mark Schwartz, a former lieutenant general in the US Army and a defense researcher at the Rand Corporation, said the personnel, aircraft and installations at Al Udeid would be "extremely vulnerable" given its "close proximity" to Iran.
Schwartz, who served in the Middle East, told AFP that even shrapnel could render the aircraft "non-mission capable."
"You want to reduce risk to US forces, both personnel and equipment," he said.
The planes that have left the tarmac since early June could have been moved to hangars or to other bases in the region.
The US military did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.
US forces in the Middle East have been mobilized since Israel's first strikes on Iran nearly a week ago, with an additional aircraft carrier en route and significant aircraft movement.
An AFP analysis of open source data tracking aircraft positioning showed that at least 27 military refueling planes -- KC-46A Pegasus and KC-135 Stratotanker planes -- traveled from the United States to Europe from June 15-18.
Twenty-five of them were still in Europe as of late Wednesday, with only two returning to American soil, the data showed.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pleaded Friday with all sides to "give peace a chance" in the Iran-Israel conflict, warning that the violence could spiral out of control.
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