'So sad': Israeli doctors reeling after Iran missile flattens hospital
BEERSHEBA, Israel: The damage was hard to comprehend for many at Israel's Soroka Hospital as staff took stock of the wreckage after a strike by an Iranian ballistic missile on Thursday left part of the facility in ruins.
The strike in the southern city of Beersheba caused extensive damage to the hospital's entrance hall and several departments, including the ophthalmology unit on the third floor of the surgical building.
The explosion shattered windows, hurling glass across the hospital, brought ceilings crashing down, destroyed medical equipment and left corridors in disarray.
"It's so sad, I never thought something like this could happen. Never. It's only medical professionals here, and patients... and look what happened to us," Wasim Hin, an ophthalmologist at Soroka Medical Centre, told AFP.
"Here we have new equipment, everything was destroyed."
Yael Tiv, an officer in the Home Front command, said the damage was the result of a "direct hit" by a missile.
"You can see the damage inside. Shattered windows, the ceilings that fell. It's a really awful scenario inside," she added.
The hospital's director and other workers said that lives had been saved because the structure hit in the attack had been evacuated in recent days.
"It's a miracle. The building had just been evacuated," maintenance worker Kevin Azoulay told AFP.
Even still, 40 people sustained injuries during the attack.
"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," director Shlomi Codish told journalists.
Israel's multi-layered air defence systems have managed to intercept most of the missiles and drones targeting the country during the last week of fighting between Israel and Iran.
But some have managed to slip through, wreaking widespread damage at the point of impact.
The Soroka complex is the largest hospital in southern Israel and a primary medical centre for Bedouin communities in the Negev Desert, as well as for wounded Israeli soldiers returning from the war in Gaza.
The UN's World Health Organisation leader on Thursday denounced attacks on health facilities in the Iran-Israel war as "appalling."
At the WHO annual assembly last month, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had also urged Israel to show "mercy" in its bombardment and siege of Gaza, saying it was "wrong to weaponise" food and medical supplies.
Arriving at the scene of Soroka Hospital to survey the damage Thursday, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed swift revenge for the attack.
"We will make the tyrants in Tehran pay a heavy price," Netanyahu said in a post on X.
Iranian authorities later said the barrage had targeted a nearby Israeli command post and intelligence base, according to a report published by the state news agency IRNA.
Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also weighed in.
"In this operation, the regime's command and intelligence centre near a hospital was targeted with highly accurate and guided missiles," the force said in a statement.
Elsewhere in Israel on Thursday, buildings were also damaged in the central towns of Ramat Gan and Holon, close to coastal hub Tel Aviv, which has been repeatedly targeted by Iranian missiles since war broke out between the countries last Friday.
"The truth is, God is with us and the government must keep doing what it's doing," said Renana, a resident of a building hit in Ramat Gan.
Back at Soroka Hospital, Boris Knaizer, who heads the ophthalmology department, was at a loss.
He said the department treated around 50,000 patients a year.
"And now, how are we going to receive them?" he asked. "We have no idea, we have no space, we have no rooms, everything has been destroyed." --AFP
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Malay Mail
2 hours ago
- Malay Mail
‘Making a desperate situation worse': Gaza faces man-made drought as water systems collapse, only 40pc of facilities functional, warns Unicef
GENEVA, June 20 — Gaza is facing a man-made drought as its water systems collapse, the United Nations' children agency said today. 'Children will begin to die of thirst... Just 40 per cent of drinking water production facilities remain functional,' Unicef spokesperson James Elder told reporters in Geneva. 'We are way below emergency standards in terms of drinking water for people in Gaza,' he added. Unicef also reported a 50 per cent increase in children aged six months to 5 years admitted for treatment of malnutrition from April to May in Gaza, and half a million people going hungry. It said the US-backed aid distribution system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was 'making a desperate situation worse.' On Friday at least 25 people awaiting aid trucks or seeking aid were killed by Israeli fire south of Netzarim in central Gaza Strip, according to local health authorities. Yesterday, at least 51 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes, including 12 people who tried to approach a site operated by the GHF in the central Gaza Strip. Elder, who was recently in Gaza, said he had many testimonials of women and children injured while trying to receive food aid, including a young boy who was wounded by a tank shell and later died of his injuries. He said a lack of public clarity on when the sites, some of which are in combat zones, were open was causing mass casualty events. 'There have been instances where information (was) shared that a site is open, but then it's communicated on social media that they're closed, but that information was shared when Gaza's internet was down and people had no access to it,' he said. On Wednesday, the GHF said in a statement it had distributed three million meals across three of its aid sites without an incident. Today, at least 12 people were killed in an airstrike on a house belonging to the Ayyash family in Deir Al-Balah, taking the day's death toll to 37. — Reuters
New Straits Times
6 hours ago
- New Straits Times
UK MPs to decide fate of assisted dying bill in critical vote
LONDON: British lawmakers could take a major step towards legalising euthanasia on Friday when they hold a knife-edge vote on whether to allow assisted dying for terminally ill people. MPs will either progress the legislation to the House of Lords upper chamber for further scrutiny or end it entirely following several hours of impassioned debate. Protesters both for and against the contentious bill are expected to gather outside parliament as the so-called third reading – the MPs' last chance to debate its contents – takes place inside. "It is about real people facing the prospect of a painful and undignified death either for themselves or a loved one," the legislation's proposer, MP Kim Leadbeater, told AFP in a statement. "The injustice and inhumanity of the status quo means we cannot wait any longer to offer them the hope of a better death." The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill would allow assisted suicide in England and Wales for adults with an incurable illness who have a life expectancy of fewer than six months. They would have to be able to administer themselves the life-ending substance, and any patient's wish to die would have to be signed off by two doctors and a panel of experts. A change in the law would see Britain emulate several other countries in Europe and elsewhere that allow some form of assisted dying. Supporters say euthanasia would give the terminally ill greater protections and choice at the end of their lives, but critics worry that vulnerable people could be coerced into dying. The Royal College of Psychiatrists said last month that it had "serious concerns" about the safeguarding of people with mental illness and said it cannot support the bill in its current form. MPs backed the proposed legislation by 330 to 275 votes at an initial vote in parliament last November. Since then the bill has undergone several changes, including applying a ban on adverts for assisted dying and allowing all health workers to opt out of helping someone end their life. Several lawmakers in the 650-seat parliament have subsequently switched positions, and parties are not telling them how to vote, making the outcome difficult to predict. An ITV News tracker of around half the parliamentarians estimates that 153 MPs plan to vote for changing the law, with 141 against. Some 21 remain undecided with another 21 due to abstain. Both the House of Commons and the House of Lords need to approve the legislation before the end of the current parliamentary year, likely sometime in the autumn, or the bill will fail. If it passes and receives royal assent, then it would be four years before an assisted dying service is implemented. A government impact assessment published this month estimated that approximately 160 to 640 assisted deaths could take place in the first year, rising to a possible 4,500 in year 10. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to vote in favour but several of his top ministerial team, including the health and justice secretaries, have publicly opposed changing the law. Assisted suicide currently carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Star
10 hours ago
- The Star
S'poreans can test for genetic condition causing high cholesterol levels under new programme
The new genetic testing programme for familial hypercholesterolaemia comes amid broader efforts to enhance preventive care in Singapore. - AFP SINGAPORE: Eligible Singapore residents will be able to screen for a genetic condition which causes high cholesterol levels at a subsidised rate as part of a nationwide programme launching on June 30. In a statement on June 19, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that the new genetic testing programme for familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) comes amid broader efforts to enhance preventive care in Singapore. The initiative aims to identify individuals with FH early and reduce the risk of premature heart disease with timely interventions. FH is a hereditary condition that impacts the body's ability to process cholesterol, affecting roughly 20,000 people in Singapore. People with the condition are up to 20 times more likely to experience heart attacks at a younger age compared with the general population. In a Facebook post on June 19, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said that the Government is looking to expand preventive care based on genetic testing to more diseases beyond FH. 'It is part of our longer term effort to develop predictive preventive care under Healthier SG,' he said. As part of this effort, the ministry aims to open three genomic assessment centres (GACs) to ensure effective, efficient and sustainable delivery of genetic testing services within each healthcare cluster. Genetics testing for FH at these centres will be subsidised for eligible Singapore citizens and permanent residents (PRs). They can also tap on MediSave to offset the cost. Those referred to GACs will undergo: Pre-test genetic counselling to understand potential outcomes and benefits before consenting to the test Blood drawing and the genetic test Post-test genetic counselling, to understand the implications of the results The first GAC will be operated by SingHealth and located at the National Heart Centre. It will start accepting referrals from June 30. This centre will serve all Singapore residents until additional centres open. GACs operated by National Healthcare Group and National University Health System will subsequently open to cater to residents' needs. Immediate family members of those found with the condition are at risk and encouraged to undergo genetic testing, MOH said. Known as cascade screening, this process enables early detection of FH within families. It also allows for more timely intervention and treatment, such as advising them to adopt healthier lifestyles or starting on cholesterol-lowering therapies. Under the programme, Singapore citizens and PRs with abnormally high cholesterol levels may be referred by their doctors for genetic testing. Eligible Singaporeans and PRs can receive subsidies of up to 70 per cent for the costs, which include the genetic tests, pre-test and post-test counselling, and phlebotomy services. Seniors from the Pioneer Generation and Merdeka Generation are also eligible for additional subsidies. After subsidies, referred patients can expect to pay between US$117 (US$91.06) and US$575. Those eligible for cascade screening can expect to pay between US$53 and US$253 after subsidies. The MediSave500 and MediSave700 scheme can be used to further offset the cost of the genetic test after subsidies. Patients who are 60 years old and above may also use Flexi-MediSave to further defray out-of-pocket costs. Under a moratorium on genetic testing and insurance introduced by MOH and the Life Insurance Association Singapore (LIA) in 2021, life insurers here are banned from using predictive genetic test results in assessing the outcome of insurance applications, unless certain criteria are satisfied. Insurers are also not allowed to use genetic test results from biomedical research or direct-to-consumer genetic test results. MOH said it has worked with the LIA to amend the moratorium to disallow life insurers in Singapore to use the results of all genetic tests conducted under the national FH genetic testing programme. They may, however, continue to request for individuals to disclose existing diagnosed conditions and family history. The amended moratorium will take effect from June 30. - The Straits Times/ANN
