Donald Trump has approved a plan to attack Iran but is yet to give a final order, White House officials said.

Mr Trump gave private instructions to military chiefs in the situation room inside the White House on Wednesday, sources told US media.

He told reporters: “I have ideas on what to do but I haven’t made a final – I like to make the final decision one second before it’s due.”

Sources said Mr Trump was waiting to see if Iran would concede to a last minute deal to end its nuclear programme before moving forward with attack plans.

Plans are likely to include the bombing of the Fordow nuclear site buried deep beneath a mountain, with the US thought to have the only weapon that could get close to destroying it – a 30,000lbs bunker busting bomb. 

Mr Trump has for days suggested that he could order such a strike on Iran, which has been engaged in a war with Israel since Friday.

He said on Wednesday: “You don’t know that I’m going to even do it. I may do it. I may not do it. Nobody knows what I’m going to do. I can tell you this: Iran’s got a lot of trouble, and they want to negotiate.”

Mr Trump’s current position signals a much greater willingness to use force than a week ago when he was urging for a diplomatic approach to reach a nuclear disarmament deal with Iran.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader, rebuked Mr Trump’s earlier call for Iran to surrender in a recorded speech played on television, which was his first appearance since Friday.

He said: “Any US military intervention will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable damage. The Iranian nation will not surrender.” 

Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, said in a social media post on Wednesday that his country had “so far only retaliated against the Israeli regime and not those who are aiding and abetting it”.

While he reiterated Iran’s commitment to diplomacy, he also said his country would “continue to exercise its right to self-defence”.

Iran denies that it is seeking nuclear weapons and says its program is for peaceful purposes only. The International Atomic Energy Agency said last week Tehran was in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in 20 years.

The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Britain plan to hold nuclear talks with their Iranian counterpart on Friday in Geneva to urge Iran to return to the negotiating table, a German diplomatic source told Reuters.

But while diplomatic efforts continue, Iran and Israel continued to trade strikes on Thursday morning.

An Iranian strike hit a hospital in the south of Israel, injuring at least 32 people. 

Air raid sirens rang through Tel Aviv and Jerusalem about 7am local time (4am GMT), with loud blasts heard in both cities.

The military said in a post on Telegram: “A short while ago, sirens sounded in several areas across Israel following the identification of missiles launched from Iran toward the State of Israel.”

Israel meanwhile struck Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor, Iranian state television said.

The report said there was “no radiation danger whatsoever” and that the facility had already been evacuated before the attack, which came after Israel warned it would attack the facility and urged the public to flee the area. By Allegra Mendelson, Telegraph / Yahoo News