Israeli strike on Gaza's Nasser Hospital kills 6, including doctor

Israeli airstrike on southern Gaza's Nasser Hospital on Thursday killed at least six people, including a surgeon, according to Palestinian health authorities.

The attack wounded at least 20 others and severely damaged the hospital's surgical wing.

Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza's civil defense agency, confirmed that six bodies had been recovered from a building at the medical complex in Khan Younis, where medics identified one of the dead as Rezik Abushira, a surgeon.

"The death toll from the Israeli strike inside Nasser Medical Complex, west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, has risen to six," Bassal told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The strike came early Thursday and hit what remains of one of the few functioning medical facilities left in Gaza.

Parts of the hospital's second floor were destroyed after Israeli fire struck during the attack, witnesses said.

Reuters video from inside showed rubble and furniture strewn across rooms with wires dangling from damaged ceilings.

People carried injured patients on stretchers through debris-covered corridors while firefighters worked outside amid the wreckage.

Hazem Qassem, a spokesperson for Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, condemned the strike as a "fully-fledged war crime."

He added that the U.S.-backed Board of Peace in charge of overseeing the Gaza's cease-fire plan was responsible for failing to prevent the strike.

The Israeli military confirmed it had carried out an aerial strike but claimed it targeted a senior Hamas member and others operating inside the hospital complex.

The military accused Hamas of using the facility as a command center for military operations. Reuters could not independently verify the Israeli military's allegations.

Israeli forces have previously attacked Nasser Hospital. In 2025, the military killed five journalists, including AP's Mariam Dagga, when it struck a gathering point for local reporters at the complex.

Israel violates the October 2025 cease-fire on a daily basis and has killed more than 1,600 Palestinians since.

On Tuesday alone, Israeli forces killed seven people, including a 13-year-old boy, according to local emergency services.

Prior to the cease-fire, Israel's two-year genocidal war on Gaza killed more than 74,600 people, mostly women and children, according to the territory's health officials.

The genocide was triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas incursion that caused around 1,200 deaths in southern Israel.