Locals, art lovers and diplomats like to meet over a meal and a drink in the historic Gastrobar Berlage behind a landmark art museum in The Hague.

But the usual stream of visitors turned into a trickle when fences started rising outside as part of super-tight security around a meeting of NATO leaders that is smothering the Dutch city in a massive military and police operation called Orange Shield.

For years, Israel has targeted Iranian nuclear scientists, hoping to choke progress on Iran's nuclear program by striking at the brains behind it.

Now, with Iran and Israel in an open-ended direct conflict, scientists in Israel have found themselves in the crosshairs after an Iranian missile struck a premier research institute known for its work in life sciences and physics, among other fields.

Much of the focus on Iran's nuclear program has been on Tehran's enrichment of uranium, but experts also keep a close watch on the Islamic Republic's Arak heavy water reactor.

That's because the facility, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest of Tehran, could produce plutonium, which can be used to make an atomic bomb.

The Bank of England warned Thursday about the "highly unpredictable" geopolitical environment as it kept its main interest rate unchanged at the two-year low of 4.25%.

With concerns mounting over the conflict between Israel and Iran, and uncertainty over U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff agenda, rate-setters at the bank were widely expected to keep borrowing costs on hold as they await developments.

Harakat al-Nujaba, one of the main Iran-backed militant groups in Iraq, threatened to attack U.S. citizens in the event that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is targeted in the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict.

Iraqi militias have thus far largely held their fire in the conflict, although three drones launched at the Ain al-Asad base housing U.S. troops in western Iraq were reportedly shot down on Friday, after Israel’s began its barrage of strikes on Iran. No group claimed responsibility for the attack on the base.

Iran’s foreign minister will meet with European counterparts in Geneva as an Israeli airstrike campaign continues to target his country, state media reported Thursday.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will travel to Geneva for the meetings Friday, the state-run IRNA news agency report.

Israel's defense minister overtly threatened Iran's supreme leader on Thursday after the latest missile barrage from Iran damaged a major hospital and hit a high-rise and several other residential buildings near Tel Aviv.

At least 40 people were wounded in the attacks, according to Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service. Black smoke rose from the Soroka Medical Center in the southern city of Beersheba as emergency teams evacuated patients. There were no serious injuries in the strike on the hospital.

As Israel pounds Iran with airstrikes targeting military facilities and its nuclear sites, officials in Tehran have proposed a variety of steps the Islamic Republic could take outside of launching retaliatory missile barrages.

Those proposals mirror those previously floated by Iran in confrontations with either Israel or the United States in the last few decades. They include disrupting maritime shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, potentially leaving the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and attacks by allied militants.

If the U.S. decides to support Israel more directly in its attack on Iran, one option for Washington would be to provide the "bunker-buster" bombs believed necessary to significantly damage the Fordo nuclear fuel enrichment plant, built deeply into a mountain.

Such a bomb would have to be dropped from an American aircraft, which could have wide-ranging ramifications, including jeopardizing any chance of Iran engaging in Trump's desired talks on its nuclear program. Israeli officials have also suggested that there are other options for it to attack Fordo in central Iran as it seeks to destroy the country's nuclear capabilities.

Tulsi Gabbard left no doubt when she testified to Congress about Iran's nuclear program earlier this year.

The country was not building a nuclear weapon, the national intelligence director told lawmakers, and its supreme leader had not reauthorized the dormant program even though it had enriched uranium to higher levels.