In place of Israeli hospital struck by Iranian strike

The black smoke was still rising from the middle of the Soroka Medical Center as we arrived, A few hours after Iran’s attack on the building.

Pieces of twisted metal shrapnel – some of them apparently from the rocket itself – scattered 200 m (656 feet) in and around the hospital complex.

Vehicles carrying medical staff lined the way out – an emergency response to a situation that many were afraid of being worse.

Crowds of soldiers, police and rescue teams grinded around the hospital entrances, as a stream of ministers arrived to express their outrage at the strike.

Alon Uzi wandered at the entrance of the hospital with two bags of belongings.

He said he had received treatment in the emergency room when the attack happened and did not have time to reach the shelter.

“I lay in bed and heard a big boom,” he told us. “Even before I could do something, there was an explosion and some of the ceiling fell and I was covered with white dust.

“I didn’t have time to get out of bed. I was just getting ready and then I heard a whistle noise.”

Inside the emergency intake area, the air carried a tang of chemicals mixed with dust. Patients are still evacuated to stretchers from deep into the building, as the emergency teams passed into the surgical wards that were struck.

Medical staff told the local media that the patients there were recently moved to the hospital’s emergency shelters underground. Seventy -one people were injured, according to the Israeli Ministry of Health.

Professor Asher Bashiri, director of the maternity ward, said he could see the area of ​​impact from his office.

“It looks amazing,” he told me. “The upper part of the building was cracked and the fire came from it in the first hours. Everything seems broken.”

He said they had moved all patients to a more protected area when the war began.

“We were very, very lucky,” he said. “It could have been so worse. But we still live in an incredible situation. It’s not complete – I don’t know what will happen tomorrow or the next day. We’re just happy that we’re alive.”

The director of the Hospital Shlomi Codish said that the northern surgical building had been struck and that several wards had been demolished, with great damage to the entire hospital.

“We expect to transfer over 200 patients in the next few hours to other medical centers,” he said. “We are trying to minimize the number of people; we do not know if buildings can collapse or whether the wards can collapse.”

Among the streams visiting the site today was the Minister of Culture Mickey Zohar of the Likud Party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“All people need to know what we are confronted with – a mode that is trying to kill innocent people,” he said. “When you deal with evil, this is a different war. Believe me, we will not stop until we win. We will answer and be very strong.”

Zohar was asked about Israel’s history of Gaza Bombing Hospitals – places that the army tells him that they are used as Hamas’s military control centers.

“We keep innocent people in Gaza as far as we can,” he said. “We urge them to be evacuated before we bombard them. This is the big difference between Iran and us.”

Among the stream ministers visiting the site today to express their outrage was the Minister of Culture Mickey Zohar of the Likud Party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“All people need to know what we are confronted with – a mode that is trying to kill innocent people,” he said. “When you deal with evil, this is a different war. Believe me, we will not stop until we win. We will answer and be very strong.”

Zohar was asked about Israel’s history of Gaza Bombing Hospitals – places that the army tells him that they are used as Hamas’s military control centers.

“We keep innocent people in Gaza as far as we can,” he said. “We urge them to be evacuated before we bombard them. This is the big difference between Iran and us.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has accused Iran’s supreme leader of committing “war crimes of the most serious species”, saying he would be liable.

Netanyahu has accused Iran of deliberately targeting civilians, promising that Israel will “run the full price of tyrants in Tehran.”

The Iranian media say the center they are heading is at GAV-YAM Tech Park, which is less than 3 km (1.86 miles).

It was one of half a dozen objects affected by Iranian missiles on Thursday morning, the day after Donald Trump asked for Iran’s “unconditional show”.

It is a reminder that both sides have the ability to escalate this conflict, or by using different weapons – either by choosing different goals.

The US President weighs the decision to enter the war with Israel, while requiring Iran to undergo an agreement that concludes his nuclear enrichment in order to block his way to nuclear weapons.

On Wednesday, Israel said he had sent 40 fighter jets to bombard targets in Iran, including an inactive nuclear reactor in Arak and a Nathan nuclear building, along with dozens of rocket facilities and radar.

After almost a week of daily attacks on both sides, this war is uncertainly balanced on the verge of a much wider conflict.