Israeli strike on Gaza hospital deadliest since election

Israeli strike on Gaza hospital deadliest since election

Khan Yunis (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – An Israeli strike killed six people and wounded nearly 30 more in southern Gaza's Nasser hospital early Thursday, Gaza health officials said, the deadliest single strike since Israel's elections last month.

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The Israeli military confirmed the attack, saying it targeted "a senior Hamas terrorist and additional terrorists from Hamas's military wing" it said were operating from the hospital, which it has long accused the Palestinian Islamist movement of using to shelter militants.

Hamas has denied this, and both parties frequently accuse each other of violating the terms of a US-backed ceasefire agreement that took effect in October 2025.

Nasser Hospital confirmed the six deaths in a statement.

Gaza's civil defence agency said the bodies from the strike had been recovered from the targeted building, which according to a medical source was the surgery ward of Nasser Hospital, a sprawling medical complex in the southern city of Khan Yunis.

A seventh person was killed by Israeli fire in central Gaza's Al-Bureij camp Thursday, Bassal said.

Nearby Al-Aqsa hospital confirmed receiving the body and said the man was shot dead by Israeli forces.

Israel's military said it was looking into the death.

Israel is currently governed by a caretaker government under Benjamin Netanyahu following an inconclusive election, with opposition bloc head Gadi Eisenkot officially tasked with forming a new administration.

Netanyahu, who has held power on-and-off for nearly 20 years and has led Israel throughout the war in Gaza, has played up security threats to the country throughout the election period and called for a unity government.

'Without prior warning'

An AFP journalist at the scene of the hospital strike reported that one of the building's exterior staircases had partially collapsed and that indoors, an entire floor was damaged, with broken concrete from collapsed walls mixed with broken medical equipment.

"The surgery building was bombed by F-16 aircraft without any prior warning, resulting in a large number of patients being wounded, and many patients and doctors being killed," paramedic Ezzedin Abu Sabha told AFP.

The Israeli military said it carried out an "aerial strike to eliminate the threat they posed, after the Hamas terrorist organisation had established a presence within the hospital complex and used it as a command centre".

It said in a separate statement that Mohammed Abu Ismail, a Hamas commander for the Khan Yunis brigade, was killed in the strike.

Israel's foreign ministry accused Hamas of using the hospital complex "for interrogation, torture and terrorist operations".

Hamas in a statement denied using the hospital for military purposes, saying Israel put forward "a false narrative" to justify air strikes.

Hazem Qassem, spokesman for the Palestinian Islamist movement, called the strike a war crime, adding that Hamas held the US-backed Board of Peace in charge of overseeing Gaza's ceasefire plan responsible for failing to prevent the strike.

Israel has struck Nasser Hospital on numerous occasions since the start of the war sparked by Hamas' unprecedented attack on October 7, 2023, accusing the movement of harbouring militants in the large medical complex.

In August 2025, Israeli strikes on the hospital killed 20 people including five journalists in one day, according to the civil defence.

While the 2025 ceasefire has largely subdued the fighting, Israel has kept up a steady rate of strikes in the territory.

On Tuesday, Israeli forces killed seven people, including a 13-year-old boy, in the Gaza Strip, according to local emergency services, while the Israeli military said it had targeted "military operatives".

More than 1,600 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the ceasefire, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

During the same period, the Israeli military has reported the loss of seven soldiers, as well as one civilian contractor.

© 2026 AFP