Iranian officials have firmly denied claims circulating in Israeli media that a missile fired during Thursday morning’s barrage targeted Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, asserting instead that the strike was aimed at nearby military infrastructure, not civilian medical facilities.

The denials follow reports in Hebrew-language outlets suggesting that the Iranian missile strike — part of a broader retaliation by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — had directly hit the hospital. Al Jazeera also noted that Soroka Hospital has been used by the Israeli military to treat soldiers wounded in Gaza, but Iranian sources insist the facility was not the intended target.

Soroka Medical Center is situated adjacent to the Gav-Yam Technology Park, which houses key military and cyber command installations. These include the Israeli army’s main intelligence headquarters and C4I/C4ISR facilities—critical components of Israel’s digital command, control, and cyber warfare systems.

Iranian media and IRGC sources emphasized that Thursday’s missile barrage was a "precise and direct" strike on these military targets. The hospital reportedly suffered only minor shockwave damage due to its proximity to the strike zone.

Iranian officials accused Israel of “psychological warfare” by framing the strike as an attack on civilian infrastructure. “This false narrative is part of a psychological campaign aimed at sanitizing Israel’s military image and concealing the extent of the blow to its intelligence infrastructure,” Iranian sources told local media.

They further alleged that Israel was attempting to divert attention from the strategic damage inflicted on its command network, particularly in the wake of Iran’s escalating retaliatory campaign.

Iranian sources also pointed out what they described as the double standards of international coverage, noting that recent Israeli airstrikes had hit civilian hospitals in Tehran and Kermanshah, drawing little condemnation from global institutions or Western governments.

Iran maintains that its military response remains proportionate, targeted, and within the bounds of international law, aimed at countering aggression from the Zionist regime, not inflicting harm on civilians. (ILKHA)