An Israeli airstrike hit a building housing surgical wards and intensive care units at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, early on Thursday, killing six people, according to the territory’s Hamas-run civil defence agency and health ministry. Reports of the number wounded ranged from 20 to about 30.
The strike damaged the al-Yasin surgery building at the Nasser Medical Complex, the largest hospital in southern Gaza, which serves almost one million people. The hospital’s director, Dr Ahmed al-Fara, told a news conference that Israeli forces fired two missiles at the building overnight and that only one detonated. The health ministry said medical staff, patients and companions were among the dead, including general surgeon Dr Rizq Abu Shaira, and condemned the attack as a “flagrant violation of international laws and conventions”.
Conflicting casualty counts
Accounts of the wounded have differed between outlets through the day. Reuters, quoting Gaza’s civil defence service and its spokesman Mahmoud Basal, reported 20 injured. The Associated Press said at least 28 were wounded. The BBC reported about 30, citing the health ministry. Reuters reports varied between five and six through the day. Reuters, quoting Gaza’s education ministry, said a 13-year-old boy was among the dead.
Israel’s account
The Israeli military said it carried out a “precise strike” targeting the commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, Mohammed Abu Ismail, and other fighters it said were hiding inside the hospital and using the compound as a headquarters. It alleged they were planning attacks on Israeli forces from the site, and said it issued advance warnings, releasing an audio recording of what it described as one such warning. Dr al-Fara insisted the hospital had received no warning. The Associated Press reported that the commander Israel named was not among the dead.
Hamas rejected the Israeli account as a “blatant attempt to justify a documented crime targeting a civilian medical facility”. Under international law, hospitals have protected status, although they have been repeatedly struck during the war. Israel accuses Hamas of exploiting civilian infrastructure, which Hamas denies.
What cannot be verified
Israel does not permit international news organisations, including the BBC, to report from inside Gaza, and the BBC states that it is unable to verify details of the incident independently. Every casualty figure in this article comes from a Hamas-run body, either the health ministry or the civil defence service, and is labelled as such. The Israeli military’s statements are its own account, not a finding.
A hospital struck repeatedly
Dr al-Fara said the hospital has been hit seven times during the war. In August 2025, a double Israeli strike killed 22 Palestinians, including journalists and health workers, according to the BBC; Reuters put that toll at at least 20. The World Health Organization says it has documented 1,028 attacks on healthcare in Gaza since October 2023, resulting in 1,010 deaths as of 30 September 2026. Its director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said Gaza’s health facilities are “lifelines” that must be protected and never militarised or attacked.
Ceasefire under strain
Israeli strikes have continued almost daily since a US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect in October 2025. More than 1,620 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry, whose figures the UN considers reliable. Israel says four of its soldiers have been killed over the same period, Reuters reported; a later version of the same report put the figure at five. The BBC reported that heavy rains last weekend reportedly flooded tens of thousands of tents sheltering displaced families.
The war was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, when about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage. More than 74,650 people have been killed in Gaza since then, the health ministry says.
Sources: BBC News; Associated Press; Reuters.
Image: Felton Davis, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. File photo — destroyed buildings in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, during the Israel-Hamas war.