‘This is a war crime': Herzog tours Beersheva hospital hit by Iranian missile

Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva on Thursday, hours after an Iranian ballistic missile hit it, in what the head of state denounced as a war crime.

“I arrived at Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva this morning, to be greeted by Director of the hospital, Prof. Shlomi Kodesh, along with doctors, nurses, and patients, Jews and Muslims, from all walks of life from across the beautiful Negev,” Herzog said in an English-language statement.

“We stood together and looked at the destruction and devastation caused by an Iranian missile fired indiscriminately with the sole intention to take innocent lives in a hospital,” he continued. “This is a war crime!

“We see two things,” Herzog said, sharing pictures from the visit to Soroka. “We see the face of evil and terror spread by the Ayatollahs in Tehran, and at the same time we see the resilience and strength of Israeli society, united in our desire to see all the peoples of this region live in peace.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said in a statement following a visit to Soroka on Thursday afternoon that he received “many phone calls” from his counterparts around the world “condemning this crime.

“The Iranians are doing this time and again during the last days,” he noted. “We are attacking military objectives, nuclear program objectives, ballistic missile objectives. And they are specifically and deliberately targeting civilians.”

“This is clearly a war crime. It reflects the Iranian regime’s consistent strategy, they are deliberately targeting civilian population, civilian targets, civilians, children, elderly people,” Sa’ar said.

At least six people were seriously wounded by an Iranian missile barrage that hit Israel on Thursday morning. Soroka sustained a direct hit, and impacts were also reported in Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan and Holon.

Four serious injuries were caused by a hit on an apartment building in Holon, south of Tel Aviv, according to Wolfson Medical Center. Two people were seriously wounded in a direct hit in Ramat Gan.

The barrage, composed of some 30 ballistic missiles, was the heaviest launched by the Islamic Republic at the Jewish state in some 48 hours.

The number of injured since Friday stands at more than 200, including at least 147 in the greater Tel Aviv region and 60 in Beersheva. The figures include those injured while running to shelter, individuals suffering from anxiety, and hurt people who checked themselves into hospitals.

Early on June 13, more than 200 Israeli fighter jets attacked dozens of enemy targets, including military and nuclear sites, in a “preemptive, precise, combined” opening strike against Tehran’s nuclear program.

Since the start of the war on Friday, Iranian attacks on Israel’s civilian population centers have killed 24 people in the Jewish state. Three were killed on Friday, 13 overnight on Saturday, and eight early on Monday.