An Iranian ballistic missile struck the Soroka Hospital in Beersheba on Thursday [Tsafrir Abayov/Anadolu via Getty Images]
An Iranian ballistic missile barrage fired at Israel on Thursday damaged parts of a hospital in Beersheba, prompting Israeli outrage over the alleged targeting of medical facilities – outrage that rang hollow given Israel’s own repeated attacks on hospitals in Iran, Gaza, and Lebanon.
A missile struck the Soroka Hospital in the town of Beersheba, lightly wounding some 70 people, according to Israeli reports.
Following the strike, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened in a post on X to make Iran “pay a heavy price”, while Defence Minister Israel Katz accused Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of giving orders to “attack hospitals”.
Iran denied it targeted the hospital but had instead fired on an Israeli military base located near the hospital.
“The main target of the attack was the Israeli Army Command and Intelligence Base (IDF C4I) and the Army Intelligence Camp in Gav-Yam Technology Park, located in the vicinity of the Soroka Hospital,” the state news agency IRNA said.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps doubled down on the claim, saying it had targeted “the Israeli regime’s command and intelligence centre”.
On Monday, Israel itself struck the Iranian Farabi Hospital and Medical Centre in Kermanshah, and had damaged or destroyed most of the healthcare infrastructure in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israeli police have blocked foreign news agencies from broadcasting from Thursday’s missile impact sites.
According to police, footage of the impact sites revealed “precise locations” and was aired by Al Jazeera, which had since been banned in Israel over its coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza.
Police reportedly ordered one cameraman to hand over his recording device while filming, according to TOI. The cameraman resisted, saying: “They are seeing you on CNN, seeing you on BBC, seeing you all over the world, so calm down for a second.”
This clampdown followed threats by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who said he would prevent foreign reporters from filming missile strike locations.
“Broadcasts that show exactly where the missiles land on the State of Israel are a danger to state security,” he said. “I expect that anyone who does this be treated as someone who harms state security.”
Iran has previously struck Israeli military targets in earlier barrages, including a warehouse at the Military Intelligence School in Camp Moshe Dayan, and, last Saturday, a site near the Israeli military’s main defence headquarters in Tel Aviv.
