Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran will “pay a heavy price” after an Iranian missile attack on a hospital in southern Israel on Thursday, while his defence minister said Iran’s supreme commander would be “held accountable”.
“This morning, Iran’s terrorist dictators fired missiles at Soroka Hospital… and at civilians in the centre of the country. We will make the tyrants in Tehran pay a heavy price,” Netanyahu said in a post on X.
Following an early morning assault of “dozens” of Iranian ballistic missiles, the Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, in southern Israel, was set on fire, with effects also recorded in two Israeli communities near coastal city Tel Aviv.
Speaking at the hospital, director Shlomi Kodesh claimed that a surgical building that had been evacuated in the previous few days was hit, and that 40 people were injured.
“Several wards were completely demolished and there is extensive damage across the entire hospital with damage to buildings, structures, windows, ceilings across the medical centre,” he told journalists.
Iran claimed it was targeting an Israeli military and intelligence base, not a health facility.
The latest escalation occurred on the seventh day of deadly clashes between the two countries, leaving US President Donald Trump unsure whether Washington will join Israel in the conflict.
Despite Trump’s statements that “Iran has a lot of trouble and they want to negotiate,” Iran’s top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has rejected Trump’s demand for “unconditional surrender.”
Trump has left his intentions on joining Israel in the war deliberately ambiguous, saying Wednesday: “I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.”
“The next week is going to be very big,” he added, without further details.
The White House stated that Trump would receive an intelligence briefing on Thursday, a US holiday. Top US diplomat Marco Rubio is set meet his British counterpart for talks expected to focus on the conflict.
“I have ideas as to what to do, but I haven’t made a final (decision),” Trump said. “I like to make the final decision one second before it’s due, because things change. Especially with war.”
