Hospital suffers wounds of war - Hezbollah rocket destroys entire floor housing eye ward

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 8/3/6 | Matthew Kalman

[SmithL]

Nahariya, Israel -- Dr. Uri Rehany picked his way through the wreckage of his hospital department and shook his head in sorrow.

"This is not a war with a country," he said. "It's a war with a terrorist organization."

A Hezbollah rocket smashed into the eye department on the fourth floor of the surgical wing of the Western Galilee Hospital, near Nahariya in northern Israel on Friday, destroying the entire floor and causing more than $200,000 worth of damage.

Rehany, the 59-year-old director of the eye department, was first on the scene.

"We heard an enormous explosion," he said. "We knew it hit the building somewhere. We waited for a few minutes to be sure the building was stable enough, then we started to climb one floor after the other to see where it hit. Unfortunately, it was my department."

A gaping hole that was once a window shows where the missile sent shards of shrapnel and explosives tearing through the ward. Rehany said the ruined equipment included sensitive ocular ultrasound and topography equipment worth more than $120,000.

"They destroyed eight rooms, about 20 beds, but it's not just the beds. It's all the systems -- the oxygen, the vacuum -- in the walls. It's not like the normal building of a house. There are many special facilities incorporated in the walls and the ceiling," he said.

The hospital's recently completed surgical wing was built to withstand attack. The rocket lodged in the reinforced floor of the surgery ward after traveling through the eye department, but apparently did no structural damage to the rest of the building. The security windows blew out and landed without splintering on the ground far below, as they had been designed to do.

[metmom]

Israel needs to start taking severe measures.

[dirtboy]

Expect an outcry from world leaders over this.

Not.

[Alouette]

Where are the AP photos of hysterical "rescue workers" displaying squashed eyeballs?

Oh never mind, this was an Israeli hospital.

[mjpohl]

Please Isreal Annihilate them. I have so much respect for Israel, they have gonads to go over these terrorists. America has gonads...but very small gonads. France on the other hand has no gonads at all in fact they have estrogen!!

[BadAndy]

"Hezbollah rocket destroys entire floor housing eye ward"

I bet they never saw that coming.

[Gay State Conservative]

Eye ward upstairs,rocket making factory downstairs? Do not for a *minute* put it past these 9th Century knuckledraggers!

[Convert from ECUSA]

Where is the "outrage" from the MSM? Where is the "outrage" from DU? Where is the "outrage" from the UN? Where is the "outrage" from France, Spain, Russia, China.......? [sound of crickets] Well? [more sound of crickets] Anyone out there? [continuing sound of crickets] I know the MSM, DU, UN, etc., etc., are out there, we can hear you breathing? [nothing but the sound of crickets]. WTH, I thought so!

[Tzimisce]

Think this will be on the front page of every newspaper?

...I doubt it....