Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

Huckabee praises Soroka staff after Iranian missile strike

The U.S. ambassador to Israel met with the hospital’s director general and listened to staff recount their life saving actions during the attack.

U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee with Soroka Director General Prof. Shlomi Codish at the missile strike site, Soroka Medical Center, Beersheba, Israel, June 26, 2025. Photo by David Azagury, U.S. Embassy Jerusalem.
U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee with Soroka Director General Prof. Shlomi Codish at the missile strike site, Soroka Medical Center, Beersheba, Israel, June 26, 2025. Photo by David Azagury, U.S. Embassy Jerusalem.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee visited Beersheva’s Soroka Medical Center on Thursday, commending the staff for their courage after the hospital was struck by an Iranian missile on June 19.

Huckabee met with the hospital’s director general, professor Shlomi Codish, and heard firsthand accounts of the staff’s life saving actions during the attack.

Huckabee called the visit “deeply moving” and the accounts “testaments to the resilient spirit of Israel and its people.”

Soroka, the largest hospital in southern Israel, sustained significant damage when a missile hit its surgical wing during a broader Iranian assault. Fortunately, most patients had been moved to shelters beforehand, preventing mass casualties, though more than 70 people had to be treated for injury or shock.

Despite the damage, Soroka’s staff continued to provide emergency care.

The Israeli government condemned the attack as a violation of international law.

See more from JNS Staff
With Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez suspending her campaign, state Rep. Francesca Hong, a Democratic Socialists of America member with a record of anti-Israel activism, and former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes have emerged as the Democratic Party’s leading candidates ahead of the Aug. 11 primary.
Rep. Jake Auchincloss accused President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu of breaking the compact underlying U.S. military assistance to Israel by launching the war against Iran.
“I want to maintain the dialogue and the conversation, because I think they need to work harder to try to figure out how to get more friends instead of creating more enemies,” the Washington Democrat said.
“The rules that they’ve been using to build these data centers were not intended for these kinds of data centers,” David Greenfield, of Met Council, told JNS. “Now they’re happening very frequently, and they’re having unintended consequences.”
She helped turn JINSA into the “very significant face of the American Jewish community to the US military,” the JNS publisher said.
The 15 still appear on the AIPAC website in a section about candidates it supports, but users are no longer offered links with which to donate to the candidates.