An Israeli air strike early Thursday tore through the surgical department of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, killing at least six people and wounding roughly 20 more at what residents and aid workers describe as one of the last fully functioning hospitals left in southern Gaza.
Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry said medical staff, patients and people accompanying them were among the dead, including a surgeon that civil defence workers identified as Dr. Rezik Abushira. Eyewitnesses told the BBC that a single missile struck a five-storey building housing the hospital's surgical wards and intensive-care units, tearing open an entire floor and scattering beds and equipment across the wreckage. A paramedic who reached the site shortly afterward said the missile had penetrated the structure vertically before detonating inside the surgical department; the hospital's director said the building had taken a direct hit that caused extensive structural damage.
The Israeli military said it had targeted "a senior Hamas terrorist" and other operatives from the group's armed wing whom it alleged were "operating within Nasser Hospital" and using the complex as "a command centre for military and terrorist activities." It did not publicly release evidence to support the claim. Hamas did not address that allegation directly but called the strike "a fully-fledged war crime," while the Health Ministry condemned it as a "flagrant violation of international laws and conventions."
A protected target, struck again
Nasser Hospital has been hit before. In August 2025, an Israeli strike on the same complex killed several journalists who had gathered there, including a contributor for the Associated Press, drawing sharp international condemnation at the time. International humanitarian law grants hospitals special protection from attack in wartime, a status the Red Cross says is being tested repeatedly as militaries accuse opponents of sheltering fighters inside medical facilities. Israel has long made that accusation against Hamas; Hamas denies it. Israel does not allow international news organisations, including the BBC, independent access to Gaza, making it almost impossible to verify competing accounts of who was inside the building and why.
The strike lands more than a year after Israel and Hamas agreed to the first phase of a US-brokered ceasefire in October 2025, under which Hamas released hostages in exchange for a staged Israeli withdrawal. Israeli forces still control roughly 60% of the territory, and strikes have continued despite the truce: health authorities say more than 1,600 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since it took effect, while five Israeli soldiers have died in the same period. Gaza's health system, which the World Health Organization has tracked through more than two years of strain, has been reduced to a handful of partially functioning hospitals, and Nasser's surgical and intensive-care capacity made it one of the few remaining options for trauma care in the south.
The broader war has exacted an extraordinary toll on both sides since Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages. Gaza's Health Ministry says Israel's campaign since then has killed more than 74,600 Palestinians — a figure compiled under Hamas's authority but one the UN and independent researchers generally treat as a reasonable baseline given the absence of independent access to the territory.
What happens next
No outside investigation of Thursday's strike had been announced as of publication, and neither side showed any sign of backing off its account. Hamas officials renewed calls for international monitors to be granted access to Gaza's hospitals; Israeli officials gave no indication they would open the complex to outside scrutiny. With the ceasefire's political track still unresolved — including disputes over Hamas's disarmament and who will administer Gaza once the war formally ends — the strike is likely to add friction to already strained talks over the agreement's next phase.
