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.
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Smoke rises from Soroka Medical Centre in Beersheba, Israel
Credit: Reuters
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The hospital was damaged following a missile strike from Iran
Credit: Reuters
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Firefighters work in a building of the Soroka hospital complex after it was hit by a missile fired from Iran in Beersheba, Israel
Credit: AP
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A view of the damage is seen from the inside
Credit: Getty
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Sun Foreign Editor Nick Parker speaks to Israeli President Herzog at the Presidential Palace in Jerusalem
Credit: Doug Seeburg
And in an exclusive interview with The Sun, the embattled Israeli leader
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
Tensions rise Middle East
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.
Most read in The US Sun
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.'
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Herzog vented his outrage at the presidential palace in Jerusalem after visiting shocked patients and staff at Soroka Hospital
Credit: Doug Seeburg
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A view of the damage is seen at Soroka Medical Centre after it was hit by a missile launched from Iran during retaliatory strikes in Beersheba
Credit: Getty
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A view of the Soroka Medical Centre after the strike
Credit: AP
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands amid debris outside the Soroka Hospital
Credit: AFP
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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.'
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Smoke billows from Soroka Hospital in Beersheba in southern Israel
Credit: AFP
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BEERSHEBA, ISRAEL – JUNE 19: A view of the destruction after an Iranian missile hits Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, Israel on June 19, 2025. (Photo by Tsafrir Abayov/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Credit: Getty
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Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz raged that evil Iranian kingpin Ayatollah Ali Khamenei must die
Credit: AFP
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
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
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.
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When a
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.'
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Irish Examiner
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- Irish Examiner
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