Iran strikes hospital, hits children's ward; Netanyahu condemns attack

Criticising it as a blatant attack on civilians, Netanyahu asserted that while Israel is conducting precision strikes on Iran’s nuclear and missile programmes, Iran has targeted a hospital with a children's ward.

“I am here at the Soroka Hospital in Be'er-Sheva, together with the Minister of Health, Deputy Minister Almog Cohen, a resident of the South, and also, not for the first time, the director of the Soroka Hospital. We see the whole difference here. We are hitting with precision the targets of the nuclear and missile programs, and they're hitting a hospital, where people can't even get up and run away,” read a statement issued by the Israeli PM’s office on Thursday.

“They're hitting not far from here — there's a children and babies ward here. That's the whole difference between a democracy taking lawful action to save itself from these murderers —and these murderers whose aim is to destroy every one of us. Each and every one of us, until the very last one among us. I think that tells you everything,” the statement added.

Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar launched a scathing attack on his Iranian counterpart Seyed Abbas Araghchi for calling the missile strike in Soroka Hospital an attack on “Israeli Military Command, Control and Intelligence Headquarters”.

“Araghchi You lie! I was just at Soroka Hospital with dozens of international journalists. They saw with their own eyes the brutal aftermath of your regime's missile strike on a civilian hospital that treats Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike. No AI lies, no fake maps can change the facts. Your barbarism is exposed to the world,” Sa’ar wrote in a post on X.

Araghchi in a social media post on Thursday stated, “Earlier today, our powerful Armed Forces accurately eliminated an Israeli Military Command, Control & Intelligence HQ and another vital target. The blast wave caused superficial damage to a small section of the nearby, and largely evacuated, Soroka Military Hospital.”

He claimed that the facility is mainly used to treat Israeli soldiers “engaged in the Genocide in Gaza 25 miles away, where Israel has destroyed or damaged 94 per cent of Palestinian hospitals.”

Following the Iranian missile attack in the hospital on Thursday, Netanyahu vowed a fierce response against what he called the "terrorist tyrants" in Tehran.

“This morning, Iran's terrorist tyrants launched missiles at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba and at a civilian population in the centre of the country. We will exact the full price from the tyrants in Tehran,” said Netanyahu in a post on X after the attack.