Latest news with #SharrenHaskel
AU Financial Review
12 hours ago
- Politics
- AU Financial Review
Whatever happens, the Middle East has been remade
During the past week, Sharren Haskel has established a new bedtime routine with her three young daughters at her home, waiting for the inevitable air raid siren as Iranian missiles and drones rain over Israel. 'In the beginning, we would run into the [bomb] shelter, but now I set all my three little babies to sleep in our little shelter,' Haskel, who is Israel's deputy foreign minister, tells AFR Weekend.
The National
a day ago
- Politics
- The National
Israel rightly condemned Iran's strike on one of its hospitals, but what about the ones it struck in Gaza?
On Thursday morning, Israel 's Soroka Hospital in Beersheba was hit by Iranian missiles, sustaining 'extensive damage'. Israeli officials understandably condemned the attack. But they appeared to be shocked – as if they had not seen a hospital being struck in the past two years when, in fact, Israel had struck all of Gaza's hospitals, sustaining complete or partial damage. The healthcare system in the Palestinian enclave is collapsing, with more deaths and injuries mounting every day. As things stand, at least 55,700 people have been killed and 130,100 wounded since October 7, 2023. Israel's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sharren Haskel, called for 'the world to speak out' about Iran's attack. 'Deliberate. Criminal. Civilian target,' she said. She is right. It was, after all, a civilian target. But Israel did not hold itself to the same standard when it struck Al Shifa hospital in April last year, Al Ahli Arab hospital in April this year, the European hospital in May and Al Nasser hospital in February 2024, to name a few examples. On every occasion, it claimed to have evidence that the facilities were being used by Hamas or other armed groups in Gaza. So, what would happen if Iran did the same – claiming that the Soroka hospital was housing people who posed a threat to it? Would that be considered enough to justify its attack? Would the West suddenly support Iran's 'right to defend itself', regardless of how it does it? All hospitals are protected under international humanitarian law and should never be attacked. The wounded and the sick inside the facilities, as well as their medical staff, employees and ambulances all fall under protected status. From Sudan to Palestine and Israel – everybody should be held to the same standard under IHL and be guided by the collective global moral compass that bans harm to civilians, keeps hospitals out of harm's way and restricts war to within the confines of international law. Unfortunately, however, that is not how Israel has taught the world it could be done.
Morocco World
a day ago
- Health
- Morocco World
Israel Condemns Iran's Alleged Targeting of Hospital
Seven days into a conflict triggered by Israel's unprovoked attack on Iranian territory, Iran launched 20 ballistic missiles early Thursday morning, one of which reportedly struck the Soroka Medical Centre in Beersheba, southern Israel. Israeli officials and hospital sources described it as a 'direct hit.' Footage circulating online shows significant structural damage, though the hospital's director confirmed that all staff and patients were safe in fortified shelters, resulting in no serious injuries. The strike came hours after Israel launched fresh airstrikes on Iran — which the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) claimed were aimed at nuclear facilities — continuing to frame their aggression as 'retaliatory.' In contrast, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said its missile barrage was a precise attack on military infrastructure, not civilian targets. Iranian sources emphasized that any damage to the hospital was caused by shockwaves and denied that civilian infrastructure was deliberately targeted. Human shields and war crimes Iranian outlets also noted that Soroka Hospital sits between two key Israeli military installations — the IOF's main intelligence headquarters and a central command facility located in the Gav-Yam Technology Park. These sites reportedly serve as hubs for Israeli cyberwarfare and digital command systems. The proximity of a hospital to such critical military infrastructure raises serious questions about Israel's long-standing practice of embedding civilian sites around military assets — a tactic it routinely accuses others of using. While Iranian officials reiterated the strike's military intent, Israel and its allies rushed to denounce the hospital damage as a war crime — a stunning display of hypocrisy from a state that has spent the past 20 months systematically bombing hospitals across Gaza. Israel has raided medical facilities, kidnapped doctors, and imposed a blockade that denies even basic medical supplies. Palestinian surgeons have been forced to operate without anesthesia, amputating limbs with rudimentary tools under siege. And yet, it is only now — when an Israeli hospital sustains damage — that Israeli leaders rediscover the language of international law. Israel's moral posturing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, currently wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes in Gaza, quickly took to X to vow revenge: 'This morning, Iran's 'terrorist tyrants' launched missiles at Soroka hospital in Beersheba and at a civilian population in central Israel,' he wrote. 'Israel will exact the full price from the tyrants in Tehran.' Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel echoed Netanyahu, claiming: 'Iran just hit Soroka Hospital in Be'er Sheva with a ballistic missile. Not a military base. A hospital. Deliberate. Criminal. Civilian target.' Haskel has consistently defended Israel's genocide in Gaza and dismissed international condemnations as 'blood libel.' She also baselessly accused 10,000 UNRWA staff of being Hamas members — a falsehood that helped justify the defunding of a vital lifeline for besieged Palestinians. Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz said that the IOF has been instructed to escalate operations, warning of intensified strikes on what he called 'strategic targets in Iran and against government targets in Tehran.' Katz, continuing the state's hypocritical messaging, accused Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei of committing war crimes: 'These are war crimes of the most serious kind – and Khamenei will be held accountable.' This comes from the same minister who personally oversaw the complete humanitarian blockade on Gaza, manufacturing starvation for over two million people. Katz later issued a direct threat to Khamenei: '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 exist.' A tale of two narratives While Iran has denied deliberately targeting the hospital, many observers have pointed out that — even if it had —the strike would be considered 'legitimate' by Israel's own warped logic. Israel routinely labeled every hospital in Gaza a Hamas 'command center' and used that claim to justify repeated attacks on Gaza's medical infrastructure, despite never providing credible evidence. In fact, as Israel prepared for potential Iranian strikes, hospitals across the country activated emergency protocols and moved patients to underground shelters. Footage circulating online appears to show armed Israeli soldiers taking cover alongside medical staff in hospital basements—exposing Israel's own use of the very tactics it falsely accuses others of employing. International media swiftly echoed Israel's narrative, reporting on the strike as a hospital attack by Iran — a level of outrage and clarity that has been consistently absent in coverage of Israel's relentless bombing of Gaza's hospitals. When Palestinian hospitals are attacked , the language softens: murders become 'deaths,' baseless Israeli accusations are parroted without evidence, and Israel itself is often omitted as the perpetrator. Also missing from headlines are Israel's recent attacks on Iranian hospitals. In recent days, Israeli airstrikes targeted two civilian hospitals in Tehran and Kermanshah — a flagrant act that has drawn little international condemnation and even fewer headlines. According to the Iran-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Israel's strikes have killed at least 639 people and injured 1,329. Meanwhile, reporting from Jordan due to being banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera said six Israelis are in critical condition following Iran's attacks on Thursday. The Israeli death toll remains officially at 24 — a figure shrouded in media ambiguity, as Israel appears to both conceal the scale of its own losses and exaggerate civilian targeting to amplify its victim narrative.
ABC News
a day ago
- Politics
- ABC News
Iranian missiles strike hospital and apartment building
Overnight Iran has launched a wave of retaliatory airstrikes on Israel which hit several sites including a high-rise apartment building and a hospital. Sharren Haskel is the Deputy Foreign Minister of Israel, and she speaks to David Speers from Tel Aviv.
The National
a day ago
- Politics
- The National
Israel accused of 'hypocrisy' after calling hospital strike 'war crime'
An Iranian missile slammed into the Soroka Medical Centre in southern Israel early on Thursday, injuring people and causing 'extensive damage', according to officials. Iranian state media reports that the missile strike targeted a military site next to the hospital and not the facility itself. Separate Iranian strikes hit a high-rise apartment building in Tel Aviv and other sites in central Israel, with at least 40 people injured according to Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service. READ MORE: Israeli strikes kill 72 Palestinians, 29 waiting for aid trucks Israel, meanwhile, has carried out strikes on Iran's Arak heavy water reactor, its latest attack on the country's sprawling nuclear programme, on the seventh day of a conflict that began with a surprise wave of Israeli air strikes targeting military sites, senior officers and nuclear scientists. Israel's deputy foreign affairs minister Sharren Haskel has called Iran's strike on the hospital "deliberate" and "criminal", while the Israeli health minister Uriel Buso said it was a war crime. But Richard McNeil-Willson, who lectures in the Middle Eastern studies department at Edinburgh University, said while striking a hospital is a war crime, the country's ministers are displaying hypocrisy given Israel has 'time and again' attacked hospitals in Gaza. 'The bombing of a hospital is a war crime under the 1949 Geneva Convention, but it is a war crime that the Israeli state has committed time and again,' he told The National. 'Israel has not just targeted hospitals but has sought to wipe out the entire healthcare system in Gaza, in an area it is blockading and bombarding, amidst mass population displacement and acute shortages of food, water, medical supplies, fuel and shelter. 'Concern over the striking of the Soroka Medical Centre in Israel should be contrasted with the Israeli destruction of Al Ahli hospital, the siege of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, and attacks on all 36 hospitals in Gaza. READ MORE: Israel's aggression makes mockery of self defence claims 'It must be contrasted with the killing of 227 journalists, more than any conflict in recent history; and with the scholasticide of schools, universities, and the destruction of all state infrastructure in Gaza. It must be contrasted with the entrapment, displacement and targeting of over two million Gazans in a genocide again. 'The mass murder of civilians by the Israeli State has been met by either total indifference or outright support by many politicians - including by the UK Government - and demonstrates the racism and hypocrisy not just at the heart of the Israeli state and Zionism, but in European and Western governments.' Israeli forces have killed 70 Palestinians on Wednesday, including people waiting for aid trucks. UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy is to meet his US counterpart Marco Rubio today to discuss the situation in the Middle East as Donald Trump continues to consider joining Israeli strikes against Iran. Israel's campaign has also targeted Iran's enrichment site at Natanz, centrifuge workshops around Tehran and a nuclear site in Isfahan. Its strikes have killed top generals and nuclear scientists. A Washington-based Iranian human rights group said at least 639 people, including 263 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 1300 wounded. In retaliation, Iran has fired some 400 missiles and hundreds of drones, killing at least 24 people in Israel and wounding hundreds. The Arak heavy water reactor is 155 miles south-west of Tehran. Heavy water helps cool nuclear reactors, but it produces plutonium as a byproduct that can potentially be used in nuclear weapons. That would provide Iran another path to the bomb beyond enriched uranium, should it choose to pursue the weapon. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, has been urging Israel not to strike Iranian nuclear sites. IAEA inspectors reportedly last visited Arak on May 14. Due to restrictions Iran imposed on inspectors, the IAEA has said it lost 'continuity of knowledge' about Iran's heavy water production – meaning it could not absolutely verify Tehran's production and stockpile.
