Rebuilding Soroka: Restoring Critical Capacity
For more than six decades, Soroka Medical Center has stood as a cornerstone of strength, healing, and hope. Its clinicians deliver babies, perform complex surgeries, treat traumatic injuries, provide highly specialized care, and advance scientific discoveries for communities that otherwise would have to travel far from home. Soroka is a gateway to the Negev and a strategic asset for the State of Israel.
The past few years have brought Soroka to the center of national emergencies. Following the attacks of October 7, 2023, Soroka treated thousands of wounded civilians and soldiers. The hospital mobilized immediately, relocating departments, reinforcing critical units, and receiving mass casualties even as rockets and missiles targeted the region. Its teams worked around the clock to save lives under extraordinary circumstances.
The escalation of June 2025 marked a devastating turning point. A ballistic missile fired from Iran struck Soroka directly, destroying the six-floor Northern Surgical Building and forcing the evacuation of multiple departments, laboratories, and clinics. Yet by that same evening, the medical center was prepared once again to receive trauma patients, demonstrating the commitment, professionalism, and courage that define the institution.
Today, Soroka must rebuild, expand, and modernize while continuing to operate amid evolving security threats. Under Operation Roaring Lion, the hospital returned to full emergency footing, activating wartime protocols, relocating patients into fortified areas in accordance with Home Front Command guidelines, and integrating departments to maintain continuity of care under fire.
Transformational Funding Priorities
Rebuilding Soroka: Restoring Critical Capacity
The destruction of the Northern Surgical Building and the displacement of hundreds of beds have made rebuilding an urgent national mission. One of the first priorities is the full renovation of the Internal Medicine Building, which houses six floors of inpatient units caring for patients with complex, chronic, and acute medical conditions.
Renovations will include modernized patient rooms, updated infrastructure, reinforced spaces, and improved staff work areas to ensure both safety and dignity in care. Soroka is also expanding its Southern Surgical Building, adding two new floors to support critical surgical specialties and restore the capacity the medical center needs for the years ahead.
In addition, Soroka is planning to build a new New Medical Tower which will be Soroka’s long-term response. This state-of-the-art protected facility will transform the hospital’s ability to provide uninterrupted care during both routine operations and national emergencies while meeting the healthcare needs of the Negev’s rapidly growing population.
Designed as an 11-story, 65,000-square-meter medical tower, the project will add approximately 500 protected inpatient beds and consolidate many of Soroka’s most critical services into one highly integrated clinical environment. The tower will house Internal Medicine, Neurology, Cardiology, Nephrology, Geriatrics, the Heart Institute, the Brain Institute, protected Intensive Care Units, 12 operating rooms, advanced imaging, dialysis services, and multilevel underground emergency hospital infrastructure capable of functioning during prolonged security events.
Upon completion, anticipated in 1933, the tower will dramatically increase Soroka’s protected clinical capacity More than replacing what was lost, the New Medical Tower will establish a new national standard for resilient hospital design, allowing lifesaving care to continue without interruption while improving patient flow, clinical efficiency, family-centered care, and access to advanced medical technologies.
Donor Opportunities Please Contact:
Rachel Heisler Sheinfeld | Executive Director
American Friends of Soroka Medical Center
Office: 914-725-9070 | Mobile: 914-582-6750