BE’ER SHEVA, Israel โ One year after a direct Iranian ballistic missile struck Clalit Soroka Medical Center during Operation Rising Lion on June 19, 2025, the hospital has emerged as a symbol of resilience and renewal, launching one of the most ambitious reconstruction and expansion programs in its history.
According to Clalit Soroka Medical Center, the attack caused extensive damage to the hospital’s Northern Surgical Inpatient Building and surrounding infrastructure. Despite the destruction, medical teams continued to provide uninterrupted care to patients throughout the crisis, ensuring that southern Israel’s primary referral hospital remained operational for more than 1 million residents across the Negev.
Hospital officials say the reconstruction effort has evolved beyond simple restoration. Instead, it is reshaping the medical center into a larger, more secure, and technologically advanced healthcare campus capable of meeting both routine medical needs and future national emergencies.
The June 2025 missile strike marked one of the most significant attacks ever carried out against an Israeli civilian hospital. The Northern Surgical Inpatient Building, originally constructed when Soroka opened in 1959, suffered severe structural damage. The facility housed inpatient wards, operating rooms, clinical and research laboratories, allied health services, administrative offices, and critical support functions.
Nearby buildings and essential hospital infrastructure also sustained significant damage from the blast.
Despite these challenges, hospital staff maintained uninterrupted patient care while emergency restoration work began almost immediately.
Over the past year, extensive repairs have been completed throughout the campus. Infrastructure systems, ceilings, windows, doors, medical equipment, and utility networks damaged during the attack have been repaired or replaced.
Hospital officials report that the Internal Medicine Building is now approaching full operational capacity. During the conflict, three internal medicine departments underwent comprehensive modernization and renovation while continuing to provide patient care.
One of the hospital’s most significant reconstruction projects involves the complete rebuilding of the Northern Operating Room Complex, which was destroyed during the missile strike.
According to Clalit Soroka, the operating rooms are being rebuilt with significantly enhanced protective features and are expected to reopen before the end of this year.
In parallel, construction is underway on three additional protected operating rooms elsewhere on the campus, expanding the hospital’s surgical capacity beyond its pre-war capabilities.
In March 2026, the eastern section of the damaged Northern Surgical Inpatient Building was safely demolished. Planning for the reconstruction of the western section has already been completed as part of the hospital’s long-term redevelopment strategy.
Hospital officials also unveiled plans for a historic expansion that will fundamentally reshape healthcare delivery across southern Israel.
Working in partnership with the Municipality of Be’er Sheva, Soroka plans to nearly double its built area through the development of approximately 45 dunams, or about 11 acres, on the western side of the campus along Rager Boulevard.
The project will include three mixed-use towers, approximately 300 residential units for healthcare professionals, hotel accommodations, expanded outpatient medical institutes, commercial space, employment facilities, and significantly increased parking capacity.
A centerpiece of the expansion will be a new protected 11-story inpatient tower that will house inpatient departments, a comprehensive Heart Center, a Neuroscience and Brain Center, advanced operating rooms, and catheterization laboratories.
The building will also include an underground parking facility engineered to be rapidly converted into an emergency underground hospital during periods of conflict or national emergency.
Hospital officials say four additional flagship facilities are scheduled to open in the coming months.
These include a new protected Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, a dedicated Research Building, a Rehabilitation Center that will provide both adult and pediatric rehabilitation services, and an expanded Emergency Department and Trauma Center designed to meet the needs of southern Israel’s rapidly growing population.
The new rehabilitation center will include Soroka’s first dedicated pediatric rehabilitation program.
“One year after the attack, we are not simply restoring what was damaged,” said Prof. Shlomi Codish, Director General of Clalit Soroka Medical Center.
“We are building the next generation of healthcare in Israel, a larger, safer, more innovative, and stronger medical center. As the healthcare hub for more than one million residents of the Negev and a strategic pillar of Israel’s national resilience, Soroka continues to demonstrate that even from an unprecedented crisis, it is possible to grow, innovate, and lead.”
Prof. Codish credited the reconstruction effort to cooperation between the Government of Israel, Clalit Health Services, and donors from Israel and around the world.
Among those supporting the rebuilding initiative are philanthropist Sylvan Adams, the Koum Foundation, and other international partners who recognized the strategic importance of strengthening southern Israel’s largest medical center.
One year after enduring one of the most devastating attacks ever directed against an Israeli hospital, Clalit Soroka Medical Center stands not only as a fully functioning healthcare institution but also as a national symbol of Israel’s determination to strengthen critical civilian infrastructure in the face of ongoing security challenges.
Hospital officials say the reconstruction effort reflects a broader commitment to ensuring Israel’s healthcare system remains prepared to serve patients under all circumstances and to provide world-class medical care for generations to come.
