Israeli officials reacted with fury after an Iranian ballistic missile struck southern Israel’s major hospital on Thursday.
Soroka Hospital in Beersheba was struck by a missile, but a representative of the facility said there were no deaths and only minor injuries, according to CBS.
Iran claimed it was targeting an intelligence site, but Israeli officials rejected that explanation.
Minister of Defense Israel Katz said, Iran committed “war crimes of the most serious kind,” and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “will be held accountable for his crimes.”
“The prime minister and I instructed the IDF to increase the intensity of the attacks against strategic targets in Iran and against government targets in Tehran in order to remove the threats against the State of Israel and undermine the regime of the ayatollahs,” Katz explained.
“The cowardly Iranian dictator sits deep within a fortified bunker and deliberately launches attacks toward hospitals and residential buildings in Israel,” Katz said, according to the Times of Israel.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said the strike shows Iran would have no moral qualms about using a nuclear weapon on Israel if it were to develop one.
“If the Nazis who launch missiles at hospitals, at the elderly and at children had atomic weapons, they would fire them in a heartbeat without even thinking. This is the most just campaign that Israel has ever embarked on in history,” he said.
Footage posted to social media shows the moment of the ballistic missile impact at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba. pic.twitter.com/aicK9zLSnx
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) June 19, 2025
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Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the destruction will not stop the hospital from providing care to all people, according to the Times of Israel.
“We will rebuild everything. That is a certainty. We will demonstrate resilience, and we will change our destiny — and the destiny of the entire region,” he said.
“Jews, Muslims, and people of all faiths work together and receive care side by side” in the hospital, he said, calling this place where all are cared for “what the future can be.”
“For the sake of that future, we must fight, and we must change reality — and that means delivering a most severe blow to the head of the snake sitting in Tehran. That is the reality,” he said.
Others focused on revenge.
The Iranian regime targeted Soroka Hospital in Beersheba with a ballistic missile—hitting a major medical center.
We will not stand by. We will continue doing what must be done to defend our people. pic.twitter.com/4ldeTQhATW
— Israel ישראל (@Israel) June 19, 2025
“The missile fired at Soroka Medical Center is an act of terror and crosses a red line,” Israeli Health Minister Uriel Buso said, according to the Times of Israel.
“It is a war crime by the Iranian regime, deliberately targeting innocent civilians and medical teams dedicated to saving lives. The Health Ministry was prepared in advance, and thanks to the immediate actions we took, a major disaster was averted,” he said.
CBS noted that the Iranian missile barrage also targeted Tel Aviv, leaving 65 people injured in all the sites attacked by Iran.
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