News Digest — 6/19/25
Soroka Hospital Hit In Iranian Missile Attack
A missile launched from Iran struck Soroka Medical Center in the southern city of Be’er Sheva on Thursday (19th), causing significant damage, Israeli authorities said.
Following the missile strike on the hospital, Beersheba police began evacuating people amid suspicion of a leak of hazardous materials on an upper floor of the building.
Air raid sirens were activated across the country following a wave of missile launches from Iran. Dozens of projectiles were fired in what Tehran described as a combined missile and drone attack.
Reports indicated missile impacts in at least seven locations in central and southern Israel. Emergency services were assessing the damage and treating any casualties. Further details on injuries were not immediately available.
Residents in affected areas received alerts and were instructed to enter protected spaces and remain there until further notice. The military emphasized that people should not leave their shelters unless given explicit permission to do so.
The United States is moving closer to taking action against Iran, Bloomberg reported early Thursday (19th). According to the network, American officials are preparing for the possibility of a strike in the coming days, although the situation is still developing and could change.
The IDF launched a new wave of airstrikes in Iran early Thursday morning (19th), targeting weapons depots, missile launchers, and additional military sites – primarily in Tehran and its western outskirts.
As the strikes commenced, the IDF also issued an urgent evacuation warning in Persian for individuals located near the Arak-Khondab area, home to Iran’s IR-40 heavy water nuclear reactor.
“The IDF continues to operate across the region, as it has in recent days throughout Iran, targeting the Iranian regime’s military infrastructure,” the statement said. “Dear civilians, for your safety and well-being, we urge you to immediately evacuate the marked area. Your presence there endangers your life.”
US President Donald Trump told senior aides late Tuesday (17th) that he approved attack plans for Iran but has withheld a final order to see if Tehran would abandon its nuclear program, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday (18th), citing three people familiar with the deliberations.
Iran late Wednesday (18th) launched a second volley of missiles aimed at central Israel, triggering air raid sirens across the region. Magen David Adom said shortly after alarms blared that, at that time, no injuries had been reported.
Near-Miss Massacre: How One Order Saved Soroka’s Patients Under Missile Fire
About 24-hours before ballistic missiles hit Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba on Thursday (19th), Health Ministry Director-General Moshe Bar Siman-Tov made a dramatic decision that essentially saved dozens, if not hundreds of lives: “Clear the surgery floor in the hospital – it’s not safe.” The staff did so. Some thought he was exaggerating. On Thursday (19th) they all understood why.
At dawn, sirens wailed across the Negev as an Iranian missile slammed into the now-empty third floor surgical ward. Structural damage was severe, but thanks to Bar Siman-Tov’s preemptive order, only one patient suffered a minor injury. Dozens of others who would have been in harm’s way had already been relocated to safer levels, turning what could have been a catastrophe into a narrow escape.
Bar Siman-Tov’s directive came Wednesday afternoon (18th), when intelligence assessments warned of a coordinated barrage of more than 20 missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) aimed at overwhelming Israel’s defenses. Recognizing Soroka’s surgical unit as particularly vulnerable, he instructed hospital administrators to transfer every patient and staff member from that floor to alternate wings. By nightfall, operating theaters lay silent, and by sunrise, their vacancy proved lifesaving.
IDF Chief Of Staff : ‘We Are Not Waiting, We Are Preventing Threats’
The Chief of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) LTG Eyal Zamir , held a situational assessment on Wednesday (18th) at the Southern Command With Head Officer of the Southern Command, MG Yaniv Asor, division commanders, and additional senior officers.
During the assessment, Zamir was briefed on the current situation and the preparations moving forward. The Chief of the General Staff emphasized the importance of continued combat operations in Gaza – aimed at returning hostages and dismantling the Hamas terrorist organization – as part of Israel’s broader multi-front war effort.
“We are engaged in a very significant operation to remove an existential threat posed to the State of Israel. This is the most serious existential threat we face, and it is where we are now operating, and it is where we are focusing the IDF’s efforts,” Zamir stated.
He also addressed the role of Iran in supporting Hamas, noting that the operation targeting Iran directly affects the situation in Gaza.
“We are striking their nuclear program, and we are targeting aspects of the program. It is now clear to all of you that there is a direct line connecting Iran to the entire axis. Striking Iran means striking the axis, from Yemen to every front you are aware of, and in the end, it reaches Hamas,” said Zamir.
Zamir emphasized the lessons learned from the events of Oct. 7: “We are not waiting. We are preventing threats. We are not waiting for those threats to materialize to the point where it is too late to address them. This is exactly what we are doing – confronting the nuclear program, confronting the missile program, and reducing the threat.”
At the same time, he reiterated the importance of bringing the hostages home. “We have not forgotten our hostages. This is a moral imperative. We must bring the hostages home,” he added.
Zamir concluded by expressing his appreciation for the commanders’ efforts: “I greatly appreciate what you are doing. I know that you are operating professionally and under significant risk. Regrettably, we have paid a very heavy price in recent days. You must stay committed to the mission. I trust that you will carry it out in the best possible way.”
‘King Cyrus Freed The Jews, Perhaps Now We’ll Free The Persians’
Are Israel’s war goals changing? IDF Spokesman Effie Defrin originally said the goal of the Rising Lion campaign was, “dismantling Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs and removing its capabilities to annihilate Israel.”
However, when asked recently whether regime change in Iran was one of Israel’s objectives, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “It certainly could be the result, because the Iranian regime is very weak.”
In an Israeli television interview, Netanyahu stated this possible goal, “King Cyrus freed the Jews, perhaps now we’ll free the Persians.”
Defense Minister Israel Katz tweeted a similar message today, “A tornado is whipping through Iran. Symbols of the regime are exploding and falling down and millions of citizens are fleeing. This is how a dictatorship crumbles.”
The original goal of Israel’s Operation Rising Lion was to deliver a decisive, preemptive blow against Iran’s nuclear weapons program and its capacity to threaten Israel’s survival.
Specifically, the operation aimed to roll back an existential threat to Israel, in line with the country’s long-standing “Begin Doctrine,” which seeks to prevent hostile states from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Israel also wanted to cripple Iran’s ability to respond effectively by eliminating key military leaders, disrupting command and control, and destroying missile and air defense infrastructure.
But as Israel’s dominance grows, the chances that its attacks may lead to the downfall of the Islamic regime increases.
Public discontent in Iran is high. Recent years have seen repeated waves of protests against the regime, most notably the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement after Mahsa Amini’s death in 2022, and ongoing economic, environmental, and social grievances.
Observers note that the regime’s vulnerability is increasing, and opposition factions have called for renewed mass mobilization, but the immediate effect of the war has been to suppress large-scale protest activity, at least temporarily.
Ukrainian Child In Israel For Leukemia Treatment Killed In Bat Yam Bombing, Mother Missing
Seven-year-old Leukemia patient Anastasia (Nastia) Borik, a Ukrainian citizen, was named on Wednesday (18th) as one of the victims of a direct hit on her Bat Yam home by an Iranian ballistic missile, Israel media reported.
Borik was killed alongside three of her family members – her grandmother, 54-year-old Olena Sokolva, and her two older cousins, 14-year-old Ilia Pashkorov and nine-year-old Konstantin Totavich.
Borik’s mother, 30-year-old Maria Pashkorovia, is one of the handful of Israelis still considered missing following the Iranian attack on a Bat Yam residential building on Saturday night (14th) that killed at least nine.
According to Israel media, the seven-year-old arrived with her family from Ukraine two years ago in order to receive treatment for her condition.
The family arrived in Israel from Odessa in December 2022 as part of Nastia’s treatment; they are not Jewish, nor did they have any previous connection to Israel. Nastia’s father, Artem Borik, the only member of the family to survive, is fighting in Ukraine.
The decision to come to a foreign country for treatment was not easy, as the family left Nastia’s father Artem in Ukraine due to the country’s wartime restriction on men leaving the country.
The Ukrainian Embassy is currently arranging for the repatriation of all the bodies to Ukraine.
Currently, around 23,000 Ukrainian citizens live in Israel, around half of whom arrived after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Why Israelis On Holiday Are Trying To Escape Back To A War Zone -Yaakov Katz
On Thursday night, I boarded an El Al flight from London To Tel Aviv that was scheduled to land at 3:30 a.m. just as the Iranian attacks began. We were minutes from touchdown, when the plane suddenly banked and turned. Twenty minutes later, we were on the ground in Paphos, Cyprus.
For nearly two days. I was stuck in Cyprus. But wherever I went on the streets, at the hotel, or at the Chabad House that opened its doors within hours – I encountered Israelis, dozens of them, all singularly focused on one goal: getting back to Israel.
I came back on a tugboat that carried nine of us. An hour into the journey, the sky in front of us suddenly lit up. A flash – then a streak of fire, followed by an explosion. Then another. And another. We all knew what we were witnessing. Our group was sailing directly into a country at war. Ballistic missiles launched by Iran were raining down on our destination.
None of us asked if it was safe. Not because we were reckless, but because we were Israeli. That’s not how we think. This instinct to return – especially in times of danger – is etched into our national DNA. It’s who we are. We saw this after the Hamas invasion on Oct. 7, when thousands of Israelis dropped everything and made their way home.
When the sirens wail and the skies explode, Israelis don’t run away. They run literally into the fire. In moments like these, you understand what truly defines a nation. It’s the people who, when everything is on fire, still choose to come home.
The writer is a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute. (Jewish Chronicle-UK)
Israel Had The Guts To Do What No One Else Would – Kill Iran’s Atomic Bomb – Paul Baldwin
Since the first wave of Israel’s devastating demolition of Iran’s military and nuclear capabilities, there has been much talk of the Middle East standing on the brink of all-out war. But where is it going to come from? Iran? Tehran will throw what is left of its ballistic missile stock in the rough direction of Israel, but on recent evidence, to absolutely no significant military or geo-political avail.
The number of Iranian missiles which can reach Israel will soon be zero. So Hezbollah then? The Houthis? Syria? Hamas? They’re all busted flushes, thanks largely to the breath-taking military competence of Israel. Israel is doing what the entire world wanted, but had neither the wit nor the guts to do themselves – ensuring the mad mullahs in Tehran never get their hands on a nuclear missile.
Once again the world caught its collective breath as Israel’s devastatingly effective military used both terrible force majeure to blast nuclear sites and rapier-like precision munitions to hit the very bedrooms of Iran’s key military players and nuclear scientists.
Israel has done the world a favor. If the world had had the guts to stop Germany’s rearmament in the 1930s, 85 million lives would have been saved as World War II would never have started. This is just a 21st century version of the same. And the Israelis can see it even clearer than the rest of us. If you think the world is on a knife-edge right now, imagine a world where the Mullahs have their finger on the nuclear button. (Daily Express-UK)
