The chairman of university heads in Israel noted that air force pilots, senior intelligence officers, and Israeli defense systems are the ‘fruit’ of Israeli universities
News Desk - The Cradle
The strikes revealed the precision of Iranian missiles, which hit institutes directly associated with the defense and intelligence establishments.
“For the first time, we were really targeted,” Professor Daniel Chamovitz, chairman of the Association of University Heads in Israel, told the newspaper.
On 14 June, Iran struck the Weizmann Institute of Science in the city of Rehovot, southeast of Tel Aviv, causing unprecedented damage. In the days that followed, Ben Gurion University in the Negev and Tel Aviv University were also damaged by Iranian attacks.
“You can see that the Iranians put higher education and Israeli research at the center of their launch map,” Chamovitz went on to say.
Around 45 labs were destroyed at the Weizmann Institute, and an additional 20 sustained damage. Forty buildings throughout the campus were also impacted.
The Iranian attack on the Weizmann Institute of Science caused around $570 million in losses, with video footage confirming the massive amount of damage to the site.
Ben Gurion University in the Negev was also severely damaged by the missile that struck near the Soroka Hospital in Beersheba.
“The entire medical school was damaged; we don't know how we'll return to teaching there. Six labs were completely destroyed. The shock waves reached the campus across the street and damaged 30 of the 60 buildings. Forty-two faculty members and students were evacuated from one of the apartment buildings that was hit next to the university,” Chamovitz added.
The damage is still being assessed in Beersheba.
According to estimates, up to hundreds of millions of shekels ' worth of damage was inflicted on Ben Gurion University.
Tel Aviv University is giving 2,000 shekels to every student who was evacuated from their home due to the ballistic missile strikes, according to the report.
Chamovitz also notes that research was harmed in the attacks. “The first is the destruction of the labs and materials. A research building costs about $50 million. You need to add to this $50 million to $100 million for buying equipment. This is billions of shekels in total damage. There is electronic backup for everything, but we never imagined we would need backup for biological materials like bacteria, tissues, and DNA samples in case a building was destroyed. There were backups, but usually they were in other freezers in the same building.”
“In some cases, dozens of research years have been lost. I don't know what I'd do if I lost all the species of seeds I've collected for my research in plant science. It scares me to think about it,” he added.
Last month, Ben Gurion University announced that six of its labs were destroyed, wiping out years of work.
The universities hit and damaged by Iran’s operations are directly linked to the Israeli defense and intelligence establishments.
"All the air force pilots who were trained in the last 20 years are graduates of Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Almost all the senior officers in the intelligence units' research divisions are graduates of the universities. Iron Dome, David's Sling, and the rest of the air defense systems are the fruit of Israeli technology that comes from research that began at the universities,” Chamovitz said.
Several other high-profile targets were hit by Iranian missiles during the 12-day war.
On June 20, Iranian missiles struck the Gav Yam Negev Advanced Technology Park linked to Israel’s technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) research.
Hebrew media has recently admitted that many Israeli military sites sustained damage due to Iranian strikes.
Channel 13 noted on Friday that there “were a lot of Iranian missile hits on IDF bases, in strategic sites that we still don't report about,” adding that the lack of reporting due to heavy censorship has “created a situation where people don't realize how precise the Iranians were and how much damage they caused in many places.”
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