(JTA) — Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba was hit directly by an Iranian missile amid the most damaging barrage in days early Thursday, June 19.
No one was killed in the strike, which Israeli media said came a day after the hospital building that was hit had been evacuated. But hundreds of people were treated in hospitals across Israel for injuries, some serious, incurred during an early-morning set of explosions in multiple cities.
Israeli officials said Iran had fired what’s known as a cluster bomb for the first time — one whose warhead separates into multiple smaller explosive projectiles. They said the attack on the hospital represented an escalation that would be responded with force.
The barrage came as the conflict nears its one-week mark. Israeli forces continued to pound targets in Iran, and Defense Minister Israel Katz said the war objectives had expanded to include the “elimination” of Ayatollah Ali Khameini, Iran’s supreme leader.
U.S. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, was remaining coy about his intentions regarding the conflict. Israel wants Trump to intervene on its behalf, allowing for the destruction of Iran’s most significant nuclear facility, which is buried underground where Israeli weapons cannot penetrate.
Trump has signaled an openness to doing so, but faces sharp pushback from the anti-interventionist wing of the Republican Party. On Wednesday, he told reporters, “I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.”
Also on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had approved attack plans but had not given the signal to execute them. On Thursday morning, as the scale of destruction in Israel was becoming clear, Trump posted a new message on social media: “The Wall Street Journal has No Idea what my thoughts are concerning Iran!”
