Barzilai Medical Center is a 617-bed hospital in Ashkelon in southern Israel. The Hospital serves a population of 500,000 and has more than 100,000 admissions annually. The hospital opened in July 1961, and was initially named Ashkelon Hospital. Part of its site was previously Hussein ibn Ali's eleventh century mosque, a center of Muslim pilgrimage destroyed by the Israeli army in 1950.[2] Construction was financed by the Ministry of Health with the assistance of the South-African Zionist Federation, the Ashkelon municipality and Mifal HaPayis. The building was designed by the architect David Anatol Brutzkus, covering an area of 8,000m². In 1971, it was renamed after Minister of Health Yisrael Barzilai, who had lain the cornerstone of the building in the early 1960s. Plans to build a new rocket and missile-proof emergency room for the hospital have been hampered by Haredi protests sparked by the discovery of human remains in an ancient burial ground unearthed during construction activities. Situated six miles from Gaza, it has been the target of numerous Qassam and Grad rocket attacks, sometimes as many as 140 over one weekend. The hospital plays a vital role in treating wounded soldiers and terror victims.