TEL AVIV — The barrage of ballistic missiles from Iran, now entering its second week, is finding a new target — the “capital city of the Negev,” Be’er-Sheva. 

The city’s Soroka Hospital was on Thursday hit by rocket fire that destroyed swaths of its campus and injured some 40 people. Only an evacuation of its surgical ward the day before averted what likely would have been a mass casualty event.

Prime Minister Netanyahu and his defense minister, Yisrael Katz, visited the scene, with the latter calling Iran’s supreme leader a “modern Hitler” who “cannot continue to exist.” Mr. Netanyahu said that “no one is immune.”

On Friday another missile struck Be’er-Sheva, wounding seven people and damaging homes. Eyewitnesses report seeing a crater and cars ablaze. Those seven injured people were taken to Soroka. The Times of Israel reports that the “shockwave from the impact ripped apart the adjacent apartment building’s balconies and blew out the windows in other surrounding structures, sending glass shards and chunks of debris flying.”

The mayor of Be’er-Sheva, Ruvik Danilovich, told reporters, “There’s major damage” to his city, but “people acted according to Home Front Command guidelines and saved themselves. Our challenge is to gather the residents and find a solution for them. We’ve prepared for this.” He credits the “self-discipline of the residents” for averting more lethal damage.

Be’er-Sheva is the country’s fourth most populous metropolitan area and is both an ancient city and a new one. It was named in the Bible by Abraham, and in ancient times marked the southern border of ancient Israel. “From Dan to Be’er-Sheva” meant simply the entire kingdom, north to south. Since 1948 it has absorbed Jews from Arab lands, as well as the Bene Israel from India, the Beta Israel from Ethiopia, and refugees from the former Soviet Union.

Be’er-Sheva bears a special connection to Prime Minister Ben-Gurion — the university there is named after him. He gave the order to General Yigal Allon that it be conquered in 1948, and Israel’s first premier is buried not far away, at Kibbutz Sde Boker, about a 45-minute drive from the city. Be’er-Sheva, for decades a backwater, is now growing rapidly and emerging as an economic hub. 

Ben-Gurion saw Israel’s future as tied to its ability to make the vast desert bloom. In a speech in 1955, he declared, “In the Negev, the people of Israel and its state will be tested. This effort will determine the fate of the State of Israel and the place of our people in the history of humanity.” Nine years earlier, at the 22nd Zionist Congress, he reckoned that “those who went to the Negev know the dangers and are not afraid.”

Those dangers were realized on October 7, 2023, during Hamas’s rampage in southern Israel through border towns just minutes away from Be’er-Sheva. The city has suffered Hamas’s rockets for years. Documents seized by the IDF in Gaza disclose that Hamas intended to reach Be’er-Sheva with some 120 commandos, but was stopped by security forces en route.

Iran’s targeting of Be’er-Sheva — not to mention cities farther to the north, like Tel Aviv and Haifa — comes as President Trump announced on Thursday, “Based on the fact that there is a chance for substantial negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future — I will make my decision on whether or not to go within the next two weeks.” That statement was read at the White House by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Israel received tragic news on Friday when it was announced that a body pulled from the rubble at Bat Yam was that of a Ukrainian citizen, Maria Peshkurova. Her 7-year-old daughter, Nastia Borik, was in Israel for cancer treatment and was also killed along with several other members of their family when their building collapsed under rocket fire. 

Mr. Netanyahu, in an interview on Thursday with Israel’s Channel 11, disclosed that the IDF is running ahead of schedule and suggested that Israel would continue to attack all of Iran’s nuclear sites, regardless of what Washington decides to do. He also called the war against Iran “the task of my life” and likened its significance to Ben-Gurion’s founding of the state.

Defiance toward the ayatollahs was the prevailing mood in Tel Aviv on Friday, a week after the war began. This correspondent visited a hip cafe, Nabi Yuna, whose windows had been blown out by ballistics just days before. One employee shared security footage that showed the moment of impact. On sale to support the reconstruction effort were tank tops in black and white with a simple slogan emblazoned on the front: “F— Iran.”