Hospital in southern Israel hit by Iranian missile
Soroka hospital in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba has been hit by a ballistic missile, Israeli officials have said, after Iran launched its latest wave of retaliatory airstrikes on the country.
Unverified footage on social media showed people running through corridors filled with dust and detritus and doctors standing outside amid wreckage from the building.
“BREAKING: A direct hit has been reported at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, southern Israel. More details to follow,” the foreign ministry posted on X.
A spokesperson for the hospital reported “damage to the hospital and extensive damage in various areas. We are currently assessing the damage, including injuries. We ask the public not to come to the hospital at this time.”
Sirens sounded across the country earlier, and Israeli media reported that several loud blasts were also heard in central Israel with several other direct hits reported. Explosions were heard over Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Key events
Haim Bublil, a local police commander, told reporters from the Associated Press (AP) that several people were lightly wounded in the strike on Soroka hospital in southern Israel.
He said there was a fire in a six-story building that was hard to access, and that rescuers were still searching various buildings and moving patients to safer areas of the hospital.
A hospital statement said several parts of the medical centre were damaged and that the emergency room was treating several minor injuries.
The medical complex has over 1,000 beds and provides services to the approximately 1 million residents of Israel’s south.
Katz warns Iran’s supreme leader he will be ‘held accountable’ for Soroka hospital strike
Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz said on Thursday that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would be “held accountable” after an Iranian strike on Soroka hospital in Israel, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
The minister added that he had ordered the army to “intensify strikes” on the Islamic republic.
Katz said:
These are some of the most serious war crimes – and Khamenei will be held accountable for his actions.
He added that that he and prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military “to intensify strikes against strategic targets in Iran and against the power infrastructure in Tehran, in order to eliminate the threats to the state of Israel and to shake the Ayatollahs’ regime”.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said he did not want to discuss the possibility of Israel killing Iran’s supreme leader with the assistance of the US, Reuters reports.
The president said on Thursday:
I do not even want to discuss this possibility. I do not want to.
Putin said all sides should look for ways to end hostilities in a way that ensured both Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear power and Israel’s right to the unconditional security of the Jewish state.
The comments come after Putin pushed himself as a possible mediator for talks between Israel and Iran, as he “expressed deep concern” over the continuing escalation of the conflict.
The Times of Israel reports that Iran fired approximately 30 ballistic missiles at Israel on Thursday morning, according to IDF assessments.
Included in the targets were Soroka hospital in southern Israel as well as Holon and Ramat Gan in central Israel.
The outlet said that medics report three seriously wounded as a result of the strikes, with two in a moderate condition and dozens of others with light injuries.
Israel, in conducting its strike on Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor, signaled it remained concerned the facility could be used to produce plutonium again one day, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
The Israeli military said in a statement:
The strike targeted the component intended for plutonium production, in order to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development
Israel’s military warned people to evacuate the area around the heavy water reactor in the regions of Arak and Khondab just a couple of hours before it launched its attack on Thursday morning.
Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said Thursday that at least 47 people were injured in Iran’s latest missile strikes, updating an earlier toll and reporting 18 more injured “while running to shelter”.
Three people are in serious condition, and two are in moderate condition, an MDA spokesperson said in as statement reported by Agence France-Presse. It added that “an additional 42 people sustained minor injuries from shrapnel and blast trauma, and 18 civilians were injured while running to shelter”.
Israel’s military ordered to destabilise ‘ayatollah regime’
Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, has said the military has been instructed to intensify strikes on strategic-related targets in Tehran in order to eliminate the threat to Israel and destabilise the “ayatollah regime”, according to a post on Reuters.
More updates to follow …
As well as the attack on the Soroka medical centre in Beersheba, another missile hit a high-rise building and several other residential buildings in at least two sites near Tel Aviv, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service.
At least 40 people were wounded in the attacks.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, has warned that it will “teach aggressors a lesson” in comments to the country’s ISNA news agency.
He said that Iran never welcomed any war and never sought to expand any conflict. He said if the US wants to actively intervene to support Israel, Tehran would use its tools to defend itself and “teach aggressors a lesson”.
Some images are coming through of the strike on the Soroka hospital:
Hospital attack by ‘terrorist tyrants’, says Netanyahu
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will exact the full price from the “tyrants” in Tehran.
“This morning, Iran’s ‘terrorist tyrants’ launched missiles at Soroka hospital in Beersheba and at a civilian population in central Israel,” he said in a post on X.
Israel’s deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel called Iran’s strike on an Israeli hospital on Thursday “deliberate” and “criminal”, after the Islamic republic fired its latest salvo of missiles at the country.
“Iran just hit Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva with a ballistic missile. Not a military base. A hospital. This is the main medical center for Israel’s entire Negev region. Deliberate. Criminal. Civilian target. The world must speak out,” Sharren Haskel wrote on X.
AP has some detail on the impact of the strike on the Soroka Medical Center, which has over 1,000 beds and provides services to the approximately 1 million residents of Israel’s south.
Israeli media aired footage of blown-out windows and heavy black smoke.
A hospital statement said several parts of the medical center were damaged and that the emergency room was treating several minor injuries.
The hospital was closed to all new patients except for life-threatening cases. It was not immediately clear how many were wounded in the strike.
AP says many hospitals in Israel activated emergency plans in the past week, converting underground parking to hospital floors and move patients underground, especially those who are on ventilators or are difficult to move quickly.
The Israeli military has said it carried out attacks on dozens of places in Iran overnight, including the nuclear reactor in Arak.
In a post on X, it said it had also carried out an attack on the nuclear facility of Natanz as well as air defence batteries, missile storage sites, radars and other sites.
It was not possible to independently confirm the claims.
Israel has killed hundreds of people since launching its shock attack on Iran last week, including many children.
At least 32 people have been injured in the latest round of retaliatory Iranian missile strikes, Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service has said.
In a statement, an MDA spokesperson said that medics were “providing medical treatment and evacuating to hospitals two people in serious condition… as well as 30 people in mild condition with blast and shrapnel injuries”.
It added that additional MDA teams were treating “several injured individuals at multiple scenes.”
The “main target” of Iran’s missile attack early on Thursday was the “large [Israeli army] Command and Intelligence (IDF C4I) headquarters and the military intelligence camp in the Gav-Yam Technology Park”, the Iranian state-run news agency IRNA has reported, according to Al Jazeera.
IRNA said that the facility is located next to Soroka hospital, according to Al Jazeera.
