GENEVA: Israel accused the World Health Organization of a deafening “selective silence” after a hospital in southern Israel was hit in an Iranian missile strike on Thursday.
Daniel Meron, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said the Soroka Hospital in Beersheba was a civilian facility.
In a video on X filmed outside the WHO’s headquarters, he demanded a condemnation from the UN health agency.
A few hours later, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus issued a statement saying the reports on attacks on health in the conflict between Iran and Israel were “appalling”, citing the hospital.
The Soroka Hospital was left in flames by a bombardment that Iran said targeted a military and intelligence base.
In his video, Meron was standing at the road entrance to the WHO’s offices in Geneva, with the main building visible in the background.
“I’m here with a clear message to the WHO, to the director general of the WHO, Dr Tedros,” Meron said.
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“A few hours ago, a ballistic missile was shot from Iran directly at the main hospital in the south of Israel, the Soroka Hospital. Dozens of people were wounded and hundreds were evacuated from this hospital.
“It is not a military site. It is a civilian hospital… the selective silence of the WHO is deafening.
“They must condemn the shooting of ballistic missiles and the targeting from Iran at civilian targets in Israel.”
The WHO has repeatedly mentioned damage to healthcare infrastructure in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war in the Palestinian territory, triggered by the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas.
On Tuesday, the WHO said only 17 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals were currently minimally to partially functional.
In a message later Thursday on X, Tedros said: “The escalation of hostilities between Israel and Iran is putting health facilities and access to health care at risk. The reports on the attacks on health so far are appalling.”
He cited “this morning’s attack on Soroka Medical Centre”, and a hospital in Kermanshah in Iran being “impacted by a nearby explosion”.
“We call on all parties to protect health facilities, health personnel and patients at all times,” said Tedros.
WHO’s director for Europe Hans Kluge said he was “deeply disturbed to learn of the attack on Soroka Hospital”, having visited it following the October 7, 2023 attacks.
“Hospitals and health workers must never be targets – under any circumstances,” Kluge said.
Israel is in the WHO’s Europe region.
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