By Romana Rubeo 
While Israel levels war crime allegations against Iran, its own actions in Gaza constitute blatant violations of international humanitarian law.
Israeli media reported on Thursday that an Iranian ballistic missile struck the Soroka Medical Center in Bir Al-Saba (Beersheba), in southern Israel, as sirens sounded across the country following a new wave barrage from Iran.
A spokesperson for the medical center claimed that there has been damage in several areas of the hospital, which has been extensively used to treat Israeli soldiers wounded in Gaza.
Rescue teams have been reportedly operating to help people trapped in an elevator, according to the Israel Fire and Rescue Service.
Was the Hospital the Main Target?
Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported on Thursday that the main target of the attack was the Israeli occupation army’s Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence (IOF C4I) headquarters.
The military intelligence base targeted in the recent strike is located within the Gav-Yam technology park, adjacent to Soroka Hospital.
The site, according to the Lebanese news network Al Mayadeen, hosts thousands of military personnel, digital command centers, cyber warfare units, and the Zionist army’s C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) systems.
🇮🇷/🇮🇱 An Iranian missile struck near Soroka Military Hospital in Bir Al-Saba (Beersheba), the main facility treating Israeli soldiers returning from Gaza — the site is still burning. pic.twitter.com/g9UeCxb0V0
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) June 19, 2025
Al Mayadeen also reported that Soroka Hospital was affected by the blast wave, but it reportedly sustained no major damage as the strike was a direct and highly accurate hit on a key military installation.
Israeli emergency services also confirmed that a nearby biological research facility—classified as a sensitive security site—was struck in the attack.
Katz: It is a War Crime
Following the strike, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has vowed that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will be “held accountable” for what he described as “war crimes”.
“The cowardly Iranian dictator sits deep within a fortified bunker and deliberately launches attacks at hospitals and civilian areas in Israel,” Katz stated, according to Israeli media.
He described the strike as “one of the worst kinds of war crimes,” warning that Khamenei “will be held accountable for his crimes.”
Katz added that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have instructed the Israeli military to intensify its attacks on strategic sites in Iran, including government-linked targets in Tehran, with the stated aim of “eliminating threats to the State of Israel and destabilizing the ayatollah regime.”
Israel’s Systematic Targeting of Hospitals
Since the war began in October 2023, Israel has carried out a systematic assault on Gaza’s healthcare system, repeatedly targeting hospitals, clinics, medical infrastructure, healthcare workers, and even ambulances.
According to data released by the World Health Organization (WHO) on June 14, out of Gaza’s 36 hospitals, none are fully operational. 17 are offering limited services, while the remaining nineteen have ceased functioning entirely.
Additionally, the broader healthcare system in Gaza—including ambulances, field hospitals, and clinics—has been targeted in over 700 attacks since the war began, resulting in at least 900 deaths and more than 1,000 injuries.
In an interview with NBC News on June 14, Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that:
“Nearly all hospitals in Gaza are now damaged or destroyed, and half of them are no longer operational”.
Speaking with the Palestine Chronicle last February, Dr. Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian physician with extensive experience in Gaza, highlighted this pattern: “To destroy health care is, in a way, to attack the inner spirit of the resistance, in my opinion. And what we have seen in Gaza is unprecedented in any modern warfare,” he said.
Timeline of ‘Bloody Massacres’
The following timeline outlines major Israeli assaults on hospitals and Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure.
October 17, 2023
Hundreds of Palestinians sheltering in the courtyard of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital were killed in what Palestinian health officials described as an Israeli attack.
In the days leading up to the strike, the hospital’s director had reportedly received warnings from Israeli authorities.
November 3, 2023
An Israeli airstrike targeted an ambulance convoy outside Al-Shifa Hospital, killing numerous Palestinians.
November 21, 2023
An air strike on Al-Awda Hospital claimed the lives of three doctors: Dr. Mahmoud Abu Nujaila and Dr. Ahmad al-Sahar of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), and Dr. Ziad al-Tatari.
January 22, 2024
Several Palestinians were killed approximately 150 meters from the entrance of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis. Those sheltering in the area were subjected to nearby fighting and evacuation orders.
March 20, 2024
The Israeli military reported killing 90 people during a raid on Al-Shifa Hospital. Displaced Palestinians inside described mass detentions and abuse.
The Palestinian Resistance movement Hamas condemned the raid as a “bloody massacre,” saying patients, civilians, and displaced people were among the dead.
March 31, 2024
An Israeli airstrike hit the yard of Al-Aqsa Hospital, near the emergency room where displaced Palestinians were sheltering. Many were killed or injured.
April 1, 2024
A 14-day Israeli siege on Al-Shifa Hospital ended with hundreds of people killed, including medical staff, and the mass arrest of healthcare workers and civilians. The hospital, Gaza’s largest, was left devastated.
October 14, 2024
An Israeli airstrike on Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah killed five Palestinians and wounded 65 others. Fires broke out in the tents of displaced people who were sleeping at the time.
December 28, 2024
Israeli forces arrested Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, after he refused to evacuate one of northern Gaza’s last functioning hospitals. Dr. Abu Safiya is still detained in an Israeli prison and reportedly subject to systematic torture and abuse.
His arrest followed a large-scale raid in which Israeli troops killed about 20 Palestinians and detained around 240 others—an operation the army described as one of its largest in Gaza up to that point.
November 2024
Israeli forces laid siege to the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia for several days. The facility was left in ruins, with bodies decomposing amid the destruction.
January 4, 2025
Gaza’s Ministry of Health announced that the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza was rendered non-operational following repeated Israeli attacks.
March 23, 2025
15 Palestinian medics with the Palestine Red Crescent Society were reportedly shot and killed by Israeli forces during a rescue mission in the Tal as-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah.
Video evidence recovered from one of the medics’ mobile phones implicated Israeli troops, sparking widespread condemnation.
It is worth noting that on June 16, Israeli occupation forces also targeted Al-Farabi Hospital in the western Iranian city of Kermanshah—marking a significant escalation in the ongoing war, following a series of strikes on civilian and residential infrastructure across Iran.
Hussam Abu Safiya, the Doctor Who Stood Up To An Army – Profile
Cover for War Crimes
Israel has systematically sought to justify its attacks on Gaza’s hospitals by alleging the presence of Hamas fighters within medical facilities—a claim used as cover for its blatant war crimes.
Under international law, even the presence of combatants does not justify strikes on hospitals unless strict conditions are met, including clear military necessity and the absence of civilians—conditions Israel has consistently failed to demonstrate.
Additionally, no verifiable evidence has been provided to support these claims.
It is worth noting that while Katz now accuses Iran of war crimes, he has repeatedly justified Israeli massacres targeting Gaza’s hospitals under the pretext of fighting Hamas.
On May 13, for example, following an Israeli airstrike on the European Hospital in Khan Yunis, which resulted in at least 28 fatalities and scores of injuries, Katz said: “We will not allow the Hamas terrorist organization to use hospitals and humanitarian facilities in Gaza as shelters and terrorist headquarters.”
(The Palestine Chronicle)
– Romana Rubeo is an Italian writer and the managing editor of The Palestine Chronicle. Her articles appeared in many online newspapers and academic journals. She holds a Master’s Degree in Foreign Languages and Literature and specializes in audio-visual and journalism translation.
” the pot calling the kettle black ”
The Israeli Nazis are all subhuman filth; they deserve everything that comes at them.
Katz, Nazinyahu, Gvir and the rest are the kind of people who could make a life-long pacifist want to ‘ pass-a-fist ‘ through the back of their skulls! But still, we try to remain calm and use our collective resolve to denounce their illegal actions and call them out for all they’ve done.
And it would be just like them to blow up that hospital just to blame Iran. More power to Iran, and anyone who opposes the Israeli Nazis. To hell with Wasrael.
FTRTTSPWBF.
If unintended little damage to a single hospital is a war crime then what is deliberate destruction of multiple hospitals, water plants and killing of besieged starved civilians?
War criminals accusing others of war crime, what a joke.
The soonest the good people amidst the Israeli realize that the current criminals governing them would only end up leading them to hell the better.
With recurrent killings of their forces in Gaza and missiles raining through their shield at home, is Israel now more secure than before?
Shock! Horror! Such outrage! It’s a war crime! To target a (military!) hospital!
One ‘victim’ says “look what they’ve done to my hospital” at the resulting need for some redecoration!
In Scotland we have a saying “whit’s guid tae gie shidnae be ill tae tak”!
In Thailand the equivalent would be “som nam na”!