Latest news with #Beersheba
Arab News
an hour ago
- Politics
- Arab News
Israeli police prevent media from reporting at scene of Soroka hospital strike
LONDON: Israeli police reportedly prevented journalists from filming at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, which suffered 'extensive damage' from an Iranian missile strike on Thursday. Officers were said to have cited security concerns as the reason, on the grounds that footage from the scene revealed 'precise locations' and had been broadcast by Al Jazeera, a media outlet banned in Israel since May 2024 over its coverage of the war in Gaza. The Times of Israel said police confronted one cameraman at the hospital site and demanded he hand over his equipment. The journalist reportedly refused and told officers: 'They are seeing you on CNN, seeing you on BBC, seeing you all over the world, so calm down for a second.' Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed responsibility for the attack in which the hospital was damaged, saying it had targeted nearby Israeli military and intelligence sites. The Israeli military denied having any facilities in the area. Footage authenticated by BBC Verify suggested the medical complex was hit by a direct strike. Israeli police confirmed on Thursday that they ordered a halt to foreign media coverage at Soroka and other affected locations for reasons of national security. They added that they were actively looking for media workers filming at the sites. 'Israel Police units were dispatched to halt the broadcasts, including those of news agencies through which Al Jazeera was airing illegal transmissions,' the force said. During a visit to the hospital site on Thursday, Israel's minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said: 'This morning in Tel Aviv, there was an incident where equipment was confiscated. There is a clear policy: Al Jazeera endangers state security.' The crackdown on the media comes amid growing concerns among advocates for freedom of the press. Several journalists and other industry professionals have reported obstruction by authorities, including confiscation of equipment. Many accuse Israeli officials of censorship. It follows policy directives from far-right minister Ben-Gvir, in coordination with Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, to 'maintain the safety and security of citizens.' Sources close to Ben-Gvir said he has instructed Israel's Shin Bet security agency and the police to step up action against any foreign media outlets or civilians suspected of celebrating the Iranian missile attacks. 'There will be zero tolerance for expressions of joy over attacks on Israel,' Ben-Gvir said this week. Tensions in the region have risen sharply since coordinated strikes by Israeli authorities against Iranian military and nuclear sites began on June 13. Tehran has retaliated with missile strikes on Israeli targets, some of which have hit civilian buildings. After a visit to the Soroka hospital site on Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz escalated the rhetoric further, declaring that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei 'can no longer be allowed to exist.' Iranian authorities say at least 639 people have been killed and 1,329 wounded since the fighting began a week ago. The death toll in Israel stands at 24, according to officials in the country.
Sky News
2 hours ago
- Health
- Sky News
Why Iranian strike that damaged Israeli hospital could have big impact on the war
As I approached Soroka Medical Centre in Beersheba, Israel, I could still see the smoke rising in the heart of the city after an Iranian missile strike. At the gates, stunned-looking patients were still emerging. Among them, Jummah Abu Kush, who was inside the building when it was hit. "Suddenly we heard an enormous explosion," he told me. "We knew it was close. All sorts of things fell from the roof. The doctor was injured and others in the room were hit by the debris too. "The building opposite was on fire. It was very dangerous, very worrying and very scary." Shai Nunu, a doctor at the hospital, said he felt a huge force after the warning sound rang out. "The siren stopped and then we heard a huge explosion. We were thrown backwards from the blast," he said. Around the back of the hospital, I saw the roof of one building had collapsed. In another, windows were blown out - bits of metal and plastic hanging precariously from rooms. Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said they hit a military site nearby and the Soroka Medical Centre was not a direct target. Despite the extent of the blast, there were only minor injuries reported. But the impact on this war could be great. The Israeli leadership was quick to attend the site. First came President Isaac Herzog, then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir who declared, "We love Donald Trump", as he called for the annihilation of Iran. The Israeli government is framing what happened at the medical centre as a "war crime", vowing Iran would "pay a heavy price" and saying they were in the "process of achieving a tremendous victory". What that victory could look like is very uncertain and Iran shows no sign of backing down. Three days ago, Farabi Hospital in Kermanshah in Iran was also damaged by the shockwaves of a missile strike. The Israel Defence Forces claimed it wasn't a target. Whether intentional or not, healthcare facilities are once again at the centre of the story. The civilian number of fatalities remains far higher in Iran than Israel. More than 600 people have died so far, according to the Washington-based group Human Rights Activists. But an internet blackout has made it very difficult to get images or information out of the country. The last 24 hours have felt like a sea change in rhetoric and potential action. The drumbeat of war is sounding louder, with Israel using the attack on the medical centre to frame the argument for more intense attacks to come. The question is whether America will buy that argument enough to join the fight.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Time for Jews to repay ancient debt to Cyrus the Great and liberate Iran, Netanyahu suggests
It was in the Beersheba, about a thousand kilometers and 2,500 years from Babylon, that Benjamin Netanyahu suggested on Thursday that the time had come for the Jews to repay their ancient debt to Cyrus the Great and bring liberation to Iran. The Israeli prime minister had just made a tour of Beersheba's Soroka hospital which a few hours earlier had sustained a direct hit from an Iranian ballistic missile on one of its buildings. It was for that reason the scene of an escape which was already being dubbed miraculous by Israel's leaders. The hospital's director had only just ordered the evacuation from that particular building's upper floors, and the last of the patients had only been moved out hours before the missile struck. If he had not acted, Soroka could well have gone down in history as Israel's worst loss of life since the Hamas massacre of civilians on 7 October 2023. Netanyahu's long grip on power had looked irretrievably broken on that date 20 months ago, as his security forces had been powerless to save Israeli lives. But now, two wars on, with over 55,000 more people dead, the prime minister is carrying himself as a man of destiny. Increasingly confident of fundamentally redrawing the map of the Middle East, he toyed with the idea of regime change in Iran – the leader of a 10 million-strong nation calling on a population almost ten times bigger to overthrow the clerical regime that has ruled the country since the 1979 revolution. 'People ask me – are we targeting the downfall of the regime?' Netanyahu said, talking to the press in a hospital compound strewn with broken glass for hundreds of metres, glinting in the desert sun. 'That may be a result, but it's up to the Iranian people to rise for their freedom. Freedom is never cheap. It's never free. Freedom requires these subjugated people to rise up, and it's up to them. But we may create conditions that will help them do it.' If Israeli bombs were to break down the pillars of the Islamic Republic, Netanyahu said it would represent the paying of millenia-old dues, dating back to the liberation of the Jews from captivity in Babylon, by the Cyrus of Persia, the legendary predecessor of the ayatollahs. 'I want to tell you that 2,500 years ago, Cyrus the Great, the king of Persia, liberated the Jews. And today, a Jewish state is creating the means to liberate the Persian people,' he said. When Cyrus stormed ancient Babylon, it was by land invasion. There are fewer guarantees that an aerial bombing campaign – not an option for the ancients – can change another country's leadership in the way favoured by the bombers. So far there are signs that even fervent opponents of the oppressive regime are rallying to its cause in the face of an outside threat. At worst, bombing campaigns can bring monsters to power, as the US bombing of Cambodia helped create the Khmer Rouge. On this occasion, Netanyahu had come to the southern city of Beersheba, on the edge of the Negev desert, to paint Iran's leaders as monsters for the bombing of the Soroka hospital. 'We're targeting missile sites. They're targeting a hospital,' he said. 'They're targeting civilians because they're a criminal regime. They're the arch-terrorists of the world.' An hour earlier, Israel's president, Isaac Herzog, had stood in the same spot, with the same charred building behind him, and made the same argument, telling Iran's leaders: 'Your crimes against humanity, your war crimes, won't deter us.' Herzog left without taking questions, nor was Netanyahu challenged with questions over Israel's relentless destruction of the hospitals and clinics of Gaza, where 2.2 million Palestinians have been locked in, under conditions of near-starvation reminiscent of accounts of Middle East sieges of ancient times and the Middle Ages. Aryeh Myers, a spokesperson for the Israeli Magen David Adom emergency services, argued that there was a critical distinction, pointing to Israeli claims of Hamas strongholds under Gaza's medical facilities. 'The main difference between this hospital is it is a totally civilian hospital,' Myers said, as he helped oversee the evacuation of bedridden patients to other hospitals in the region. 'There are no tunnels underneath [Soroka] – it's not housing terrorist headquarters. This hospital is for the civilians who live in the Negev region – whether they are Jewish residents, Muslim residents, whoever it is. 'We've got a huge Bedouin community that live in this area who are served very much by this hospital. And the fact that this hospital was targeted is a horrendous state of affairs,' he said. International humanitarian law affords strong protections to hospitals, clinics, ambulances, and their staff, who are to be protected at all times. The bar for infringement is set very high. Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, argued that the Iranian missile had been aimed at a nearby Israeli military headquarters and claimed Soroka hospital only suffered 'superficial' damage from the blast wave. There was no question the damaged hospital building had been hit directly, however, and the map Araghchi used to illustrate his online claims bore little relation to the actual downtown area of Beersheba. On the other hand, Netanyahu's claims that he knew all of Israel's military sites and there was not such a site 'for miles and miles around', also seemed open to interpretation. The prime minister has a reputation for creativity when it comes to spinning a narrative, especially in this mood, as he surveyed thousands of years of history. Ultimately, he suggested, final liberation for Jews and Persians could depend on another latter day king far beyond these shores, whose evangelical supporters have also likened to Cyrus the Great. Netanyahu described Donald Trump as a saviour in waiting – 'a tremendous friend, a tremendous world leader', who he praised for 'his resolve, his determination, and his clarity'. The message has been consistent for several days now: if Israel is to play the transformative role for the ages that Netanyahu has in mind, it is clearly going to need a lot of help.
The Sun
2 hours ago
- Health
- The Sun
Iran launched DELIBERATE missile blitz on Israeli hospital but patients were moved at the last minute, president reveals
BABIES were among hundreds of hospital patients who cheated death when an Iranian missile blitzed an Israeli hospital, the nation's president told The Sun. Isaac Herzog revealed that the chiefs decided to move critical care units into a basement bunker just hours before the terrorist regime 'deliberately targeted' the hospital. 14 14 14 14 14 And in an exclusive interview with The Sun, the embattled Israeli leader branded his fanatic enemy 'disgusting and horrendous' as the Middle East conflict raged on. Appalled Mr Herzog, 64, vented his outrage at the presidential palace in Jerusalem after visiting shocked patients and staff at Soroka Hospital in the southern city of Beersheba. A huge explosion early today sent a mushroom cloud over the complex and set the roof on fire as terrified patients cowered in makeshift basement wards. They had been moved there just hours earlier by hospital chiefs as Iran's Islamist regime fired a barrage of 30 ballistic missiles from more than 1,000 miles away. Mr Herzog told The Sun: 'I was there this morning following the destruction by an Iranian missile - straight on the hospital where people were in treatment. 'The director general of the hospital decided only last night to remove all the units above ground to underground. 'They would have been killed for sure, because you see the building was totally demolished.' Mr Herzog said Soroka tends to two million patients every year, treating Israelis, Palestinians and sick and injured people from nearby Gaza. He paid tribute to the resilience of medics yesterday while revealing his shock at the scale of the damage. Mr Herzog said: 'Glass was strewn all over the place - windows and doors - total devastation, but I went underground and the hospital functions beautifully. Trump 'has APPROVED Iran attack plans & is ready to give orders' as Israel 'strikes reactor' & Tehran hits hospital 'Professor Mahmoud Abu Shakra, a great Israeli Muslim, was leading the emergency care unit underground. 'That's Israel for you. We have immense resilience. And we will recover, we will rebuild, and we will move on. 'It shows how cruel the Iranians are - the emergency care units full of babies were there, and this missile was aimed directly at the hospital. 'It was deliberate - we know it because we have intelligence. 'We know that they are carrying out crimes against humanity and war crimes all the time. 'They decided to harass us. They want to drive us crazy, so they send those missiles, but they get us wrong because we are a very strong nation, and we know how exposed they are. 'They are making a huge mistake.' 14 14 14 14 14 Mr Herzog rejected comparisons to Israeli attacks on hospitals in Gaza and insisted medical sites in the besieged enclave were targeted because terror bases were hidden beneath them. He said: 'All the aid that went into Gaza from Western countries, from us, by the way, too - all that money went to build a terror infrastructure of the worst kind. 'That was deployed on October 7th - and it's all in tunnels out there, which are full of ammunition and our hostages.' Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz raged that evil Iranian kingpin Ayatollah Ali Khamenei must die after the missile struck the hospital. He said: "Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed – he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals. 'He considers the destruction of the state of Israel to be a goal, 'Such a man can no longer be allowed to exist.' 14 14 14 Katz's threat was echoed by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, who said Israel was ready to "remove" the nuclear threat from Iran. Asked during a visit to bombed Soroka Hospital if Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei was a potential target, Netanyahu said: "No one is immune.' "By the end of this operation, there will be no nuclear threat to Israel, nor will there be a ballistic missile threat.' It comes as Iran warned the US will be sparking an "all-out war" in the Middle East if they join Israel in dropping bombs on Iranian nuclear sites. The US president is yet to say if he will directly launch an attack, but is reportedly considering striking Iran's key underground nuclear site in the coming days. Trump has become heavily involved in the conflict over the last 72 hours. When asked about US bombing Iran, he said: "I may do it, I may not do it." It is believed that the US may choose to back Israeli strikes on Iran's Fordow nuclear development area. Will Trump strike Iran? By Sayan Bose, Foreign News Reporter DONALD Trump is all but poised to join Israel's campaign of bombing Iran as they both seek to obliterate Tehran's nuclear program. The White House said on Thursday that Trump will decide on whether the US will get involved in the Israel-Iran conflict in the next two weeks. It comes as Tel Aviv has been carrying out air strikes targeting various nuclear and military facilities in Tehran and other parts of Iran. The goal, as they say, is to thwart the Iranian regime's efforts to produce nuclear weapons. The Trump administration previously said it had no plans to join the conflict. However, winds in Washington began blowing the other way after Trump cut short his G7 visit in Canada and said he needed to focus on the Middle East. And has repeatedly insisted it was not to pursue peace talks with Iran "in any way, shape or form" - a stark shift in his previous policy of striking up a nuclear deal. Don also went on to share a slew of posts on Truth Social suggesting he may be considering strikes against Iran. He wrote: "Our patience is wearing thin," before calling out Tehran for an unconditional surrender. Trump also called for an emergency situation room meeting yesterday with his top Washington aides, though details of those meetings have not yet been revealed. But Trump's statements, coupled with America's military movements, suggest the US forces may soon strike Iran. As Trump rushed back to meet his National Security Council, he vowed he was chasing something "better than a ceasefire", which would force Iran into a "complete give up". He refused to specify the endgame, but ominously warned: "You're going to find out over the next few days." A spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry said that a US intervention in the Middle East would be "a recipe for all-out war in the region. This would likely be done by a fearsome 15-ton mega bomb known as a Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bomb that can penetrate deep inside the ground before blowing up. Speaking to reporters from the Oval Office Trump did say the US is the only nation capable of blitzing the key nuke site. But he added: "That doesn't mean I'm going to do it - at all." Trump also gave a two-word warning to Iran's Supreme Leader after he revealed Tehran was trying to run back to the negotiating table since the conflict broke out. When a White House reporter asked Trump about Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's declaration that he will "never surrender", Trump simply responded: "Good luck." Trump even stepped up his rhetoric towards Khamenei as he said the US knows where he is hiding but will not kill him 'for now'. Khamenei responded to the constant threats by saying: "The battle begins." He warned that the US will face hell if it enters the war and drops a single bomb on Tehran. 'This nation will never surrender,' Khamenei said in a speech read on state television. 'America should know that any military intervention will undoubtedly result in irreparable damage.'
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- Health
- RNZ News
Israel minister says Iran leader 'can no longer exist' after hospital hit
By Alice Chancellor with AFP team Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Photo: AFP / HO / Israel's defence minister warned that Iran's supreme leader "can no longer be allowed to exist" after a hospital was hit in an Iranian missile strike on Thursday, spiking tensions in the week-old war. As President Donald Trump dangled the prospect of US involvement, Soroka Hospital in the southern city of Beersheba was left in flames by a bombardment that Iran said targeted a military and intelligence base. Meanwhile Russia, an Iranian ally, told the United States that joining the conflict would be an "extremely dangerous step". Israel, fearing Iran is on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon, launched air strikes against its arch-enemy last week, triggering deadly exchanges . Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran would "pay a heavy price" for the hospital strike, while Defence Minister Israel Katz issued a stark warning for supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed - he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals," Katz told reporters. "He considers the destruction of the state of Israel to be a goal. Such a man can no longer be allowed to exist." The latest escalation came on the seventh day of deadly exchanges between the two countries that have plunged the region into a new crisis , 20 months into the Gaza war. Israel Katz. Photo: AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP Hospital director Shlomi Codish said 40 people were injured at the Soroka, where an evacuated surgical building was hit leaving smoke billowing. "Several wards were completely demolished and there is extensive damage across the entire hospital," he told journalists at the site. World Health Organisation director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called attacks on health facilities "appalling", while UN rights chief Volker Turk said civilians were being treated as "collateral damage". People fleeing the attacks on Iran described frightening scenes and difficult living conditions, including food shortages and limited internet access. "Those days and nights were very horrifying... hearing sirens, the wailing, the danger of being hit by missiles," University of Tehran student Mohammad Hassan told AFP, after returning to his native Pakistan. "People are really panicking," a 50-year-old Iranian pharmacist who did not want to be named told AFP at the Kapikoy crossing on the Turkish border. "Yesterday the internet stopped and two major banks were hacked so people couldn't access their money. And there's not even enough food." Khamenei has rejected Trump's demand for an "unconditional surrender", despite the president's claim that Iran wants to negotiate. Vehicles await in traffic as people get out of Tehran through an artery in the city's west on June 15, 2025. Photo: AFP/ Atta Kenare Trump has been deliberately vague about joining the conflict, saying on Wednesday: "I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do. "The next week is going to be very big," he added, without further details. Any US involvement would be expected to involve the bombing of a crucial underground Iranian nuclear facility in Fordo, using specially developed bunker-busting bombs. The White House said Trump would receive an intelligence briefing on Thursday, a US holiday. Top US diplomat Marco Rubio is set to meet his British counterpart for talks expected to focus on the conflict. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had told aides on Tuesday he had approved attack plans but was holding off to see if Iran would give up its nuclear programme. The US president had favoured a diplomatic route to end Iran's nuclear programme, seeking a deal to replace the 2015 agreement he tore up in his first term. But since Israel unleashed the campaign against Iran last week, Trump has stood behind the key US ally. In Moscow, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters that any US military intervention would have "truly unpredictable negative consequences". On Thursday, Israel said it had carried out dozens of fresh raids on Iranian targets overnight, including the partially built Arak nuclear reactor and a uranium enrichment facility in Natanz. The Israeli military said the Arak site in central Iran had been hit "to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development". There was a "near-total national internet blackout" in Iran on Wednesday, a London-based watchdog said, with Iran's Fars news agency confirming tighter internet restrictions after initial curbs imposed last week. An Israeli military official, who asked not to be named, said on Wednesday that Iran had fired around 400 ballistic missiles and 1000 drones since the conflict began last Friday. Iranian strikes have killed at least 24 people and injured hundreds since they began, Netanyahu's office said on Monday. Iran said Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians. Iran had been enriching uranium to 60 percent - far above the 3.67-percent limit set by the 2015 deal, but still short of the 90 percent needed for a nuclear warhead. Israel has maintained ambiguity on its own arsenal, but the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says it has 90 nuclear warheads. - AFP
