An Israeli airstrike on southern Gaza's main hospital overnight killed at least six Palestinians including a surgeon and a teenage boy, medics said, the latest Israeli attack to undermine a year-old ceasefire in the war-shattered territory.
The strike hit a building containing surgery wards at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Israel's military said it targeted a senior Hamas commander and accused the militants of using the hospital complex to plan attacks, which the group denied.
Medics and witnesses said two missiles crashed through the roof of the five-storey building, causing extensive damage. The surgery department, which serves half of Gaza's 2 million people, was knocked out of service. Twenty others were wounded.
US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, which oversees the ceasefire agreement and a broader peace plan, called on both Israel and Hamas to honour the deal, in a rare response to an individual attack.
Ayman Abu Obeid, a doctor who was injured in the attack, said he was on an overnight shift in the hospital 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. Near him, piles of mangled furniture and medical equipment could be seen covered in dust from blown-out concrete. Torn wires hung down from the ceiling.
Among those killed was Rezik Abushira, a surgeon who was featured in a 2026 documentary, "American Doctor", working alongside three visiting US doctors who help provide medical care for Palestinians in Gaza. The dead also included a 13-year-old boy, according to Gaza's education ministry.
Four more Palestinians were killed later on Thursday in separate incidents. Two were killed and several wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a car in Gaza City, and one other person was killed by Israeli gunfire in central Gaza's Bureij refugee camp, medics said, taking Thursday's death toll to at least ten.
The fourth person was killed in an airstrike near a cemetery in Jabalia, north of the enclave.
Commenting on the vehicle strike, the Israeli military said it hit a Hamas militant without giving further details. It did not comment on the two other incidents.
ISRAEL SAYS IT STRUCK HAMAS BRIGADE COMMANDER
In a statement on the hospital strike, Israel's 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".
The military accused the militants of "turning the Nasser Hospital compound into a headquarters and operating from there".
Hamas rejected the military's claim that it had used the hospital as a base for operations. It did not immediately provide comment on whether a leader from the group had been targeted, injured or killed in the strike.
Since the start of the Gaza war, Israel's military has struck the Nasser Hospital complex at least seven times, hospital officials say.
"Gaza's health facilities are lifelines for its people. They must be protected. They must never be militarized or attacked," said World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement.
In August 2025, the hospital was hit by a double-tap Israeli attack that killed at least 20 people, including journalists and health workers.
Hospitals are protected sites under international law. Both attacking hospitals and their use for military purposes are typically considered breaches of the law.
Although medical facilities can lose their protected status under certain conditions, rights groups say Israel has not shown sufficient evidence in many cases to justify its attacks on them during the war.
An October 2025 ceasefire halted major fighting but has failed to halt Israeli attacks or secure Hamas' disarmament. At least 1,600 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire went into effect. Five Israeli soldiers have been killed during the same period.
Source: Reuters
--Agencies
