Iran’s long-range missile struck Soroka Medical Center on June 19, destroying a surgical wing that had been evacuated just hours earlier–a certain mass-casualty event narrowly averted by foresight and luck. Israeli leaders promise a massive reprisal.

In what is now being called a providentially averted massacre, a direct Iranian missile strike on Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva on the morning of Wednesday, June 19, obliterated the hospital’s South Surgical Pavilion—just one day after it had been evacuated due to mounting fears of a direct hit.

Israeli officials say the deliberate targeting of a major civilian hospital marks a “red line” crossed by the Islamic Republic. Had the surgical wing not been cleared of patients and staff the day before, they say, Israel would now be mourning scores of dead from a blatant war crime.

“There was a severe strike on the hospital,” said Health Ministry Director-General Moshe Bar Siman Tov during a site visit to the smoldering ruins of the surgical wing. “There is significant damage to infrastructure. We averted a much heavier disaster in terms of casualties and loss of life.”

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Bar Siman Tov explained that Soroka had taken proactive measures over the prior week, including dispersing patients and hardening key wards. “Due to what’s happening in the country,” he said, “we’ve been making ongoing risk-management decisions… we carried out shielding measures, reduction of in-hospital patients, and discharge to their homes.”

The missile, believed to be a Shahab-class precision weapon launched from deep within Iran, struck directly into the hospital’s operating suite shortly after 6 a.m. According to internal hospital logs and IDF Home Front Command assessments, the area had been empty since Tuesday evening, when staff, acting on their own sense of growing threat, relocated dozens of patients and halted non-essential procedures.

“Had this hit even 24 hours earlier,” said Dr. Roni Elbaz, a surgical resident who helped move patients out of the danger zone, “there would have been blood everywhere. I walked into the destroyed wing today and could barely breathe. It would have been a massacre.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, addressing the nation later that morning, condemned the strike as “a genocidal act by a terrorist regime masquerading as a state.” He praised the “heroic foresight” of Soroka’s staff and warned that Iran’s decision to target a civilian hospital would bring a “devastating reckoning.”

“Let there be no misunderstanding,” Netanyahu said. “Iran tried to murder Israeli doctors, nurses, patients, Arab and Jewish alike. And they failed—not because they lacked the will, but because we were faster and smarter. This is the nature of this war. They seek death; we protect life.”

Soroka Medical Center, the largest hospital in southern Israel, is the primary trauma and surgical center for over a million residents in the Negev, including the IDF’s southern bases. It has long served Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Druze, and Bedouin patients with no distinction. Its repeated exposure to rocket fire from Gaza over the years led to significant fortification of key areas—but not all wings were equally protected.

According to Dr. Natan Rahmani, head of trauma surgery, the South Surgical Pavilion was one of the hospital’s most vulnerable zones. “We had been discussing the risk of a direct hit all week,” Rahmani told Channel 12. “By Monday, the concern was serious enough that we made the call to move everyone. Some of my staff thought we were overreacting. We weren’t.”

Footage released by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit shows the remains of the wing: twisted steel beams, collapsed ceilings, and burned medical equipment. A crater several meters wide marked the spot where the missile entered through the roof.

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the IDF’s international spokesperson, confirmed that this was not a stray rocket but a targeted strike. “Iran launched this missile from its own territory, not through a proxy. The coordinates were precise. They wanted to kill civilians, and to cripple our medical infrastructure.”

Across Israel, the attack has galvanized public outrage. On social media, citizens hailed the “miracle at Soroka,” with many calling for accelerated retaliation against key Iranian infrastructure.

At the same time, inside Iran, dissent is growing louder. Videos circulating on X and Telegram show angry crowds chanting “Death to the dictator!” and “Israel is not our enemy!” in cities such as Tehran, Isfahan, and Mashhad. According to exile sources, the hospital strike has enraged ordinary Iranians, many of whom rely on overstretched and underfunded medical facilities back home.

Reza Pahlavi, exiled Crown Prince of Iran and son of the late Shah, released a blistering statement: “The regime in Tehran bombs hospitals abroad while letting its own people die in overcrowded clinics. This evil knows no borders. The people of Iran reject this regime of cruelty and lies.”

Israeli leaders see Pahlavi as a potential partner in a post-regime Middle East. In recent weeks, he has appeared frequently on international media, expressing strong solidarity with Israel and calling for a “historic alliance” between a free Iran and the Jewish state.

Meanwhile, back in Be’er Sheva, Soroka’s staff continue treating casualties from across the south, even as they clean up the ruins of their surgical ward.

“We didn’t stop,” said Dr. Shira Yochanan, spokesperson for the hospital. “We moved the patients, then we treated the injured from Ramat Gan, then we handled the strike on our own building. That’s what we do. That’s who we are.”

In the damaged wing’s rubble, one of the surviving objects was a hospital bed with its sheets still folded, untouched.

“It’s eerie,” said Dr. Elbaz. “It’s like the missile came to kill, and found no one home.”

The IDF has promised an “unrelenting military response” and continues to dominate the skies over Tehran, Tabriz, and Bandar Abbas. For now, Soroka Medical Center stands not only as a symbol of resilience but as a stark reminder: the war Iran wanted is here—but so is Israel’s will to live, and to win.