Israeli strike on Gaza hospital kills six Palestinians, including doctor

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - GAZA — At least six people have been killed and about 20 injured in an Israeli air strike on Nasser hospital, the biggest in the southern Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run health ministry says.

According to eyewitnesses, a single missile fired by a warplane hit the second floor of the Al-Yasin building at Nasser Medical Complex in western Khan Younis, Gaza’s Civil Defense said.

The hospital director said the strike caused extensive damage to the intensive care and surgical wards.

Israeli Army Radio described the attack as an “assassination operation”.

The health ministry said medical staff, patients and companions were killed, among them surgeon Dr Rizk Abu Shaira. It condemned the attack as a "flagrant violation of international laws and conventions".

The Israeli military said it targeted a commander of Hamas's armed wing and other fighters who had used the hospital as a "headquarters" to plan attacks on its forces.

Hamas said that Israel was spreading "false narratives" in a "blatant attempt to cover up a new war crime".

Under international law, hospitals have a protected status, but they have been repeatedly targeted during the Gaza war.

Israel accuses Hamas, which retains security control of parts of Gaza not occupied by Israeli troops, of cynically exploiting civilian infrastructure. It says the group stores weapons and runs command and control rooms in hospitals, which Hamas denies.

Israel does not allow international news organisations, including the BBC, into Gaza, making it difficult to verify what is happening in the territory.

In a video posted on social media, a paramedic from the Civil Defence agency who arrived at the building after the strike early on Thursday said the missile penetrated the five-storey structure and hit a room in the surgical department.

A spokesman for the Civil Defence, which operates under the Hamas-run interior ministry, initially said that five people had been killed and 20 others injured.

Videos shared by activists showed thick smoke inside the building and extensive destruction on the second floor, where medical equipment and beds had been scattered by the blast.

Local activists have also circulated claims that the strike may have targeted a senior Hamas security figure who was hiding inside the building.

Speaking to reporters in the aftermath of the strike, the director of Nasser hospital said the building had been hit in a vertical strike, causing extensive damage.

Nasser hospital was hit by a double Israeli strike in August 2025, which killed at least 20 people, including journalists and health workers.

Separately, the body of Palestinian man Hassan Abu Khreis arrived at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah after he was shot by Israeli forces in Block 12 east of the Bureij refugee camp, a medical source said.

An Anadolu correspondent also reported Israeli shelling of al-Masdar village and surrounding areas in central Gaza, accompanied by heavy gunfire.

In southern Gaza, a 23-year-old Palestinian woman was seriously wounded by Israeli military fire targeting displacement tents in the Bir 19 area of al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis.

A medical source said she was shot while sleeping inside her tent and was taken to Nasser Hospital, where she was admitted to the intensive care unit.

The attacks came amid continued Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement that took effect on Oct. 10, 2025. More than 1,620 Palestinians have been killed and 5,878 others woundedsince then, according to the territory's health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has recently worsened as a result of heavy rains that reportedly flooded tens of thousands of tents housing displaced families.

The Gaza war was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, when about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

Since then, more than 74,650 people have been killed in Gaza, the health ministry says.