Israeli strike hits Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, killing six including a surgeon and wounding more than 20

An Israeli strike hit Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis at dawn on Thursday, killing six people, including a surgeon, and wounding more than 20, according to Gaza’s Civil Defence and hospital officials.

The strike hit the second floor of the Al-Yasin building, which houses the surgery department of the Nasser Medical Complex in western Khan Younis. The initial toll was four dead, but it was revised up to six as rescue workers cleared the rubble.

Surgeon Rezik Abushira was among those killed, hospital officials confirmed. The strike caused extensive damage to the intensive care and surgical wards. Medical staff, patients and displaced families sheltering inside the hospital were among the casualties.

Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal gave the figures to the AFP news agency, saying the dead and wounded included people who had taken refuge in the hospital. The Israeli military said it was seeking information about the strike.

The attack came a day after strikes on Wednesday killed five people in Gaza City and in the Bureij refugee camp, in the latest round of lethal violence since the ceasefire took effect on 10 October 2025.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, 1,622 Palestinians have been killed and 5,878 injured since the ceasefire began, even as the truce remains formally in place. Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating its terms.

Nasser Hospital is one of the largest medical facilities still functioning in southern Gaza, and it has repeatedly been hit during the war. Hospitals across the territory have struggled to treat the wounded amid shortages of medicine, fuel and equipment, and the damage to the surgical and intensive care wards will add to that strain.

The strike is the latest in a series of attacks on medical facilities in Gaza that have drawn condemnation from health workers and humanitarian organisations, who say hospitals must be protected under international law.

For the families sheltering in the hospital, the strike was a reminder that few places in Gaza are safe, even under a ceasefire. Many of those inside had fled their homes earlier in the war and had been living in the hospital grounds for months.

It was not immediately clear what the Israeli military would say about the strike, or whether it would claim a target inside the hospital. The incident is likely to add to the pressure on the ceasefire, which has held in name while deadly strikes have continued almost daily.