Middle East Correspondent
AFPWhen we arrived, black smoke was still running from the middle of Soroka Medical Center, Several hours after Iran’s attack on the building.
Flames of twisted metal pellets – some of these clearly from the missile – scattered in the hospital premises and in the area of 200 meters (656 ft).
Vehicles carrying medical staff rolled out the road outside – an emergency response to such a situation would be worse.
The crowd of soldiers, police and rescue teams revolves around the entrances of the hospital, as a section of ministers arrived to express their displeasure over the strike.
Alon was roaming outside the hospital entrance with a Uzi Uzi two bags.
He said that when he was attacked, he was receiving treatment in the emergency department, and there was no time to reach the shelter.
“I was lying in bed, and I heard a big bounce,” he told us. “And before I could do anything, there was an explosion and part of the roof fell and I was covered with white dust.
“There was no time to get out of the bed. I was just getting ready and then I heard a whistle.”
Inside the emergency reception area, the air carried the legs of chemicals mixed with dust. Patients were still being extracted on the stretcher deep inside the building, as the emergency teams had hit the surgical wards.
The medical staff told the local media that the patients there were recently taken to emergency shelters of the hospital. According to the Israeli Health Ministry, seventy people have been injured.
RootsProfessor Ashra Bashiri, director of maternity ward, said that he can see the area of influence from his office.
“It looks incredible,” he told me. “The upper part of the building is torn, and the fire was on fire in the first hours. Everything seems to be broken.”
He said that when the war started, they took all the patients to a more protected area.
“We were very, very lucky,” he said. “It could have been very bad. But we are still living in an incredible situation. It’s not finished – I don’t know what tomorrow, or the next day. We are happy that we are alive.”
Hospital director, Shloomi Kodish said that the northern surgical building was killed and the entire hospital was demolished by several wards with widespread damage.
“We hope that we will move more than 200 patients to other medical centers in the next few hours,” he said. “We are trying to reduce the number of people; we do not know if buildings may fall or if the wards may collapse.”
Today, the stream of ministers going to the site was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party Culture Minister Mickey Zohar.
“All people need to know what we are facing – a governance that is trying to kill innocent people,” he said. “When you are working with evil, this is a different war. Believe me, we will not stop until we win. We are going to answer and it is going to be very strong.”
Mr. Zohar was asked about the history of the history of Israel’s hospitals in Gaza – its army says that Hamas is being used as military control centers.
“We protect innocent people in Gaza as we can,” he said. “We ask them to evacuate before the bomb. This is a big difference between Iran and us.”
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katj accused Iran’s supreme leader “the most serious war crimes”, saying that he would be held accountable.
Netanyahu has deliberately accused Iran of targeting citizens, promising that Israel “will accurate the entire price from the oppressors in Tehran”.
The Iranian media says that the center they were targeting was in the village-yam tech park, which is less than 3 km (1.86 mi).
A day after Donald Trump demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender”, Iranian was one of the half dozen sites hit by missiles on Thursday morning.
It is a reminder that both sides have the ability to increase this conflict, either using different weapons – or by choosing different goals.
The US President is weighing the decision to enter the war with Israel, while demanding that Iran presents for an agreement ending its nuclear enrichment, aimed at blocking its way for nuclear weapons.
On Wednesday, Israel said that it sent 40 fighter jets to Iran for bomb goals, including a passive nuclear reactor in Arak and a nuclear development building in the Natanz, as well as dozens of missile sites and radars.
After a week’s daily attacks from both sides, this war is uncertainly balanced on the edge of a very broad struggle.
