Israeli strike kills surgeon, five others in Gaza hospital

• Five die across territory in deadliest attacks since Oct 27 polls
• Infant freezes to death inside tent for displaced
• UN warns Gaza crises worsening as winter approaches

KHAN YUNIS: Israeli fire killed 11 people in Gaza on Thursday, including a surgeon in a strike on a major hospital, while a 9-month-old baby died of hypothermia in a displacement tent following severe weather, medics and officials said.

The deadliest single strike since Israel’s elections last month hit the surgery ward of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis early on Thursday, killing at least six Palestinians, including a 13-year-old boy, and wounding nearly 30 others.

Two missiles crashed through the roof of the five-storey building, knocking out the surgery department, which serves half of Gaza’s 2 million people.

The Israeli military confirmed the attack on the medical complex, saying it targeted Muhammad Abu Ismail, the commander of Hamas’ Khan Yunis brigade, and additional militants hiding inside.

The army said Abu Ismail directed terrorist attacks, adding that Hamas used the hospital to store weapons and conduct interrogations. Hamas denied using the hospital for military purposes, saying Israel put forward a false narrative to justify the airstrikes.

Among those killed was Rezik Abushira, a surgeon featured in a 2026 documentary working alongside visiting US doctors.

Goher Rahbour, a British surgeon volunteering at the hospital, said the strike occurred just after midnight. “It was very loud, very quick. The building shook, there was a lot of smoke that came up,” Rahbour said.

Ayman Abu Obeid, a doctor injured in the attack, was on an overnight shift when an explosion ripped through the room. “All of a sudden the world turned upside down. It went dark all at once,” he said from a hospital bed.

The rescue agency reported five more deaths on Thursday. One person was killed by “Israeli gunfire” near the al-Bureij camp and another in an “Israeli drone strike” targeting a vehicle near Deir al-Balah, both in central Gaza.

Two more people were killed in an Israeli strike on a vehicle near Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital and one was killed in a drone strike in Jabalia in northern Gaza, bringing Thursday’s death toll to 11.

Israel’s military said it struck a target in Deir al-Balah and another in Gaza City, but denied that the second strike took place near Al-Shifa hospital.

Separately, a 9-month-old baby died of hypothermia after days of harsh weather and flooding that displaced thousands of Palestinians living in tents.

The doctor, who saw the child and spoke on condition of anonymity, said that nine-month-old Kinan Ahmed Raqiq “died from hypothermia inside his family’s displacement tent” in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

“I woke up only to see his skin had turned blue so I rushed him to Nasser hospital, but he had already died from hypothermia and frozen to death,” said his father, Ahmed Raqiq. “I am in complete shock. I found myself holding my son wrapped in burial shroud,” he said outside the hospital.

Heavy rain last week flooded tens of thousands of tents across Gaza, where about 65 per cent of the population remains displaced. Five people, including three children, died the day after flooding when a sandy embankment collapsed onto their tents.

James Elder, spokesman on Gaza for the UN children’s agency, Unicef, warned that the flooding was just the beginning of the cold season.

“It’s very important to know how bad things are in Gaza. It’s not yet winter,” Elder said.

“We’re weeks away from winter, so we are getting unprecedented rain and cold.” The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

In rare criticism, President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace said this week that Israel — which tightly controls entry into Gaza — had not done enough in anticipation of the cold weather and that it needed urgently to let in more supplies.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2026