ASHKELON, Israel — Barzilai Medical Center is a major hospital in Israel’s southern region, the epicenter of the nearly two-week-old high-intensity conflict between Israel and Hamas. Hundreds of rockets from Gaza have been fired at the seaside city, with many hitting buildings and people who happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Despite being a hospital, Barzilai Medical Center has been attacked at least four times by rockets fired by terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip. Dr. Gili Givaty, the deputy director of the hospital, explained the first rocket struck a bridge used to connect two main buildings on campus. One rocket hit and severely damaged the center’s child development ward.
As of Thursday, construction crews were still clearing away the rubble from the rocket attacks.
“It is a place that in a day of peace, treats children with disabilities and take[s] care of them and now it’s completely ruined. We don’t know when we can start working there again,” Dr. Givaty explained.
Dr. Givaty says the hospital provides medical services to around 500,000 people who live in the southern region of Israel and due to its proximity to the Gaza Strip, it is the main hospital wounded soldiers get taken to during battles. Dr. Givaty said they have had to move beds to more sheltered areas within the hospital to ensure the safety of the patients.
“We know it from former rounds of battles here that the hospital is being targeted directly. They want to hurt the hospital. They want to give the impression to the people in Israel that nowhere is safe…When you send rockets to the center of town, when you send rockets to [the] hospital, it’s really…to shake us to damage our ability to treat people,” Dr. Givaty said.
The world nearly imploded from the rage over the false reports of Israeli conducting an air strike on a hospital in Gaza and killing 500 people. News outlets repeated Hamas’ claims without waiting for independent confirmation, resulting in riots breaking out at U.S. and Israeli embassies in the Middle East. Not only has all evidence pointed to a misfired Gazan rocket being the reason for the explosion, along with the explosion taking place in the parking lot, but further reports cast doubt on the death toll being as high as Hamas has claimed.
Despite the evidence, Rep. Rashida Talib (D-Hamas) has not taken down her initial post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that blamed Israel and she repeated the false claim at a rally in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. She also refused to give an answer to members of the press who have asked her about spreading the false claim.
The rockets launched by Hamas and other groups towards Ashkelon are not slowing down. During the time I was writing this story, two different rocket barrages were fired at the city. Other cities and towns were targeted this afternoon as well.
Watch the full interview below: