Bad newsIsraeli Strike on Gaza’s Nasser Hospital Kills Six, Including a Surgeon, Ministry Says
Six people died and about 30 were hurt when two missiles hit the surgery building of Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza’s health ministry says. Israel says it targeted a Hamas commander. The WHO has counted 1,056 attacks on health care in Gaza.
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An Israeli air strike on Nasser hospital in Khan Younis killed six people and injured about 30 early on Thursday 12 November, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. The dead include the surgeon Dr Rizq Abu Shaira, medical staff, patients and companions, the ministry says. The Israeli military says it targeted a Hamas commander and other fighters using the hospital as a headquarters. Hamas denies that.
The BBC reports that the hospital’s director, Dr Ahmed al-Fara, said two missiles hit the al-Yasin surgery building, which holds surgical wards and intensive care units, and that one did not explode. Footage from a freelance journalist working for the BBC showed extensive damage to an operating theatre, wards and a sleeping area for medics. Dr Mohammed Qdeih, a surgeon wounded in the head, told the BBC he had just finished work at about 00:30 when the explosion trapped him under rubble.
The Israeli military says its “precise strike” targeted Mohammed Abu Ismail, whom it named as commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, and other fighters “hiding inside” the compound. It says it issued warnings in advance and released an audio recording that it said was given to a senior Gaza health official. Fara said the hospital received no warning.
Hamas called the Israeli account a “blatant attempt to justify a documented crime”. Israel’s accusation, that Hamas runs command rooms in hospitals, is one Hamas denies. The BBC notes that international news organisations are not allowed into Gaza, which makes the events hard to verify. Al Jazeera reports that Gaza’s media office says a 13-year-old child was among the victims.
The Gaza health ministry’s spokesman, Zaher al-Waheidi, called it “a horrific crime” and said the surgery department was targeted. Fara said it was the seventh time the hospital had been struck during the war. In August 2025 a double strike there killed 22 Palestinians, including journalists and health workers.
The wider toll on health care
The World Health Organization says it has documented 1,056 attacks on health care in Gaza over three years, resulting in 1,010 deaths. Its director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said health facilities “must never be militarized or attacked”. Gaza health authorities, cited by Al Jazeera, say at least 1,725 medical workers have been killed. They say only 20 of 37 hospitals work even partly, and 44% of essential medicines are out of stock. The sources do not verify those figures independently.
The strike came during a ceasefire that took effect in October last year. The health ministry says more than 1,620 people have been killed in Gaza since then. The BBC notes that the UN considers the ministry’s figures reliable. Israel says six of its soldiers were killed in the same period. The ministry puts the war’s total at more than 74,650 dead.
Conditions are poor in other ways. Heavy rain at the weekend reportedly flooded tens of thousands of tents housing displaced families, the BBC says. At least four more Palestinians were reportedly killed on Thursday in separate incidents, and the Israeli military says it struck two “terrorists” in Deir al-Balah and Gaza City.
