Strike on Nasser Hospital Kills at Least Six

An Israeli airstrike hit the surgery department of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis overnight, killing at least six people, Gaza's Civil Defence said.

Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal told Reuters 20 people were wounded; the hospital confirmed six dead, among them surgeon Rezik Abushira. The strike damaged the surgical wards and the men's and women's intensive care units on the building's second floor.

The missile hit the second floor of the complex's al-Yasin building. Eyewitnesses told the BBC a single missile from a warplane struck the building, and an Associated Press journalist at the hospital saw part of the second floor destroyed. Hospital director Dr. Atef Al-Hout called it a vertical strike that badly damaged the surgical department and the intensive care units for men and women.

The counts still differ between agencies. Reuters and the BBC carry Basal's figure of 20 wounded, the Associated Press reports at least a dozen wounded citing Gaza's Health Ministry, and a later Al Jazeera report put the wounded at 52, a figure the other wires haven't carried. The six dead are confirmed by the hospital's own statement as well as by Civil Defence, and medics identified one of them as surgeon Dr. Rezik Abushira.

Israel's military and the Shin Bet security service said in a joint statement that they struck a Hamas cell, including a senior Hamas terrorist, that was planning attacks from inside the hospital. The military accused Hamas of using the complex as a command center, storing weapons and running command-and-control rooms and observation posts there, and said it took steps to reduce harm to civilians, using precision munitions and aerial surveillance, with the results still under review. No wire report records any warning or evacuation order before the strike. Reuters couldn't independently verify the military's allegations, and the Associated Press reported the military provided no evidence with its statement.

A Hamas spokesperson condemned the strike as a fully-fledged war crime, and Gaza's Health Ministry called it a war crime as well and asked for international protection of the health system. No reaction from the United Nations, the World Health Organization or the Red Cross to this strike is on the wire record yet.

The struck building is out of service and the hospital's surgical ward has shut down, the complex's director said. The rest of Nasser is still functioning. It's the only hospital still standing in Khan Younis, serving at least 500,000 people in southern Gaza, and no evacuation of the complex has been reported.

The strike lands inside a ceasefire that's been in effect since October 10, 2025. Gaza's Health Ministry says 1,622 Palestinians have been killed since it took effect, figures the United Nations considers reliable. Al Jazeera counts this as the seventh strike on Nasser in two years; in August 2025 a double strike on the hospital killed at least 20 people, among them journalists and health workers.