KHAN YOUNIS — An Israeli airstrike on the main hospital in southern Gaza overnight killed at least six Palestinians, including a surgeon and a teenage boy, medics said Thursday. The strike hit a building containing surgery wards at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, causing extensive damage and wounding 20 others. Israel's military said it targeted a senior Hamas commander and accused the group of using the hospital complex to plan attacks, a claim Hamas rejected. The attack is the latest to occur despite a ceasefire that took effect in October 2025.
Medics and witnesses said two missiles crashed through the roof of the five-storey building, knocking the surgery department out of service. Ayman Abu Obeid, a doctor injured in the attack, said he was on an overnight shift when an explosion ripped through the room where he and others were sleeping. "All of a sudden, the world turned upside down. It went dark all at once," he said from a hospital bed. Among those killed was surgeon Rezik Abushira, who was featured in a 2026 documentary about American doctors working in Gaza. Gaza's Education Ministry said a 13-year-old boy was also killed.
In a statement, the Israeli military said it targeted a person named Muhammad Abu Ismail, describing him as "the commander of Hamas' Khan Younis Brigade." The military said he and other militants "were hiding inside the Nasser Hospital" and accused them of "turning the Nasser Hospital compound into a headquarters and operating from there." Hamas rejected the claim that it had used the hospital as a base for operations. It did not immediately comment on whether a leader had been targeted.
Two British surgeons who were in the hospital at the time of the strike said they were not aware of any warning. Dr. Stephan Verborg, a limb reconstruction surgeon, said he heard the impact and felt the explosion. "You could smell the smoke. You could see the dust," he told NBC News. Dr. Goher Rahbour, a consultant surgeon, said he had been operating with Abushira earlier in the day and described him as a "lovely" and "affable" person. Both doctors said they had not seen any indication of a Hamas presence in the hospital.
Three more Palestinians were killed in separate incidents on Thursday, medics said. Two were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a car in Gaza City, and one person was killed by Israeli gunfire in central Gaza's Bureij refugee camp. The Israeli military said it hit a Hamas militant in the vehicle strike but did not comment on the other incident. The deaths brought Thursday's toll to at least nine.
Nasser Hospital is one of the few functioning medical facilities left in Gaza. Hospital officials say Israel's military has struck the complex at least seven times since the start of the war. In August 2025, a double-tap Israeli attack on the hospital killed at least 20 people, including journalists and health workers. Hospitals are protected sites under international law, though they can lose that status under certain conditions. Rights groups say Israel has not shown sufficient evidence in many cases to justify its attacks on medical facilities during the war.
The October 2025 ceasefire halted major fighting but has failed to stop Israeli attacks or secure Hamas's disarmament. According to Gaza's Health Ministry, at least 1,600 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire went into effect. The Israeli military says five Israeli soldiers have been killed during the same period. The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 74,600 people in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.