Israeli strike on Gaza’s Nasser Hospital kills surgeon, five others

An Israeli air strike on the Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza has killed at least six Palestinians, including a surgeon, and left dozens of others wounded.

The strike in the early hours of Thursday came after several deadly Israeli attacks on Wednesday, while the United Nations made an emergency appeal for waterproof tents to shelter hundreds of thousands of people exposed to flooding due to heavy rains.

The strike on Nasser Medical Complex west of Khan Younis left at least 20 people wounded, according to Gaza’s health ministry and civil defence.

The facility’s director, Raed al-Dahshan, said a missile penetrated the building vertically, passing through several floors and causing widespread destruction.

The strike caused significant damage to the surgery department and ICU, he said, adding that he expected the death toll to rise, given the nature of the injuries.

“Most of those killed and injured were patients, including people who were scheduled to undergo surgery the following day,” said Al Jazeera’s Gaza correspondent, Hind Khoudary. Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum added that Rizk Abu Shaira, “a significant and prominent surgeon”, was among those killed.

“This is one of the largest hospitals in the Gaza Strip and the only hospital still standing in Khan Younis, serving at least 500,000 people in southern Gaza,” Khoudary said, adding that the latest attack was the seventh time Israel struck the Nasser Medical Complex in the past couple of years.

The Israeli military claimed it was targeting a Hamas commander at the hospital.

Hamas condemned the strike as a “war crime”. It also said Israel’s claims of targeting Hamas members are “nothing but a blatant attempt to cover up a new war crime committed against a civilian medical facility protected under international law”.

In an earlier statement, Hamas said: “Mediators and the US administration must take action to halt the occupation’s ongoing violations and ensure its adherence to a ceasefire.”

Israel has continued near-daily attacks despite a so-called “ceasefire” that has been in place since October 2025. Since then, at least 1,600 Palestinians ⁠⁠have been killed in Israeli attacks, Gaza’s health ministry says.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement on Thursday accused US President Donald Trump’s administration of providing “political and military cover for the [Israeli] occupation”. “The policy of impunity encourages the occupation to escalate its aggression,” it said after the hospital attack.

Gaza-based political analyst Ahmed al-Tanani said Israel’s strike on Nasser Medical Complex sends a message that “there is no possibility of life and no possibility of recovery in the Gaza Strip”.

“Since the first day of the [Gaza ceasefire], the occupation [Israel] has gradually broken down its barriers”, he told Al Jazeera, noting Israel’s daily killings of Palestinians, expansion of the “Yellow Line”, and “now, it has reached the stage of bombing a hospital”.

Attacks elsewhere

Before the strike on Nasser Medical Complex, Israeli attacks killed seven other Palestinians across the Strip.

An Israeli air attack on Wednesday killed 38-year-old Mohammed Salem al-Daash in the Sabra neighbourhood, south of Gaza City.

Another Palestinian was shot and killed by Israeli forces east of the Bureij camp in central Gaza, and another was killed in an Israeli drone strike in the Nassr neighbourhood, northwest of Gaza City.

At least two Palestinians were killed and several others wounded in a strike that hit a tent sheltering displaced people in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, north of Gaza City.

Al Jazeera’s Khoudary described the Israeli attacks as the indiscriminate targeting of civilians, saying people who were carrying on with simple attempts to survive lost their lives, such as “a man filling up a water tank, [who] was killed in a drone strike”.

“In another attack, two brothers from the al-Absi family were killed while they were sheltering inside their tent on al-Jalaa Street,” she said, adding that nowhere in Gaza was safe.

‘Not an acceptable excuse’

The Israeli attacks came as the UN appealed for more tents to be sent to the enclave because at least 70,000 tents were flooded in weekend rains, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office.

Heavy rain has directly affected at least 106,000 people in Gaza in recent days, according to the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, with thousands of tents for displaced Palestinians submerged under water and latrines overflowing into camps.

NGOs and local organisations say they do not have the resources or capacity to deal with the crisis, as Israel continues to restrict the entry of essential aid.

“Ultimately, we need the Israeli authorities to cooperate with giving the permissions so that we can bring those tents in,” UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters at a media briefing, adding that apart from funding, Israeli permits were needed “to get this in”.

Certain countries supporting aid deliveries to Gaza have said that delivering winter supplies will have to wait for the formation of an Israeli government, according to Tom Fletcher, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs.

In a statement, Fletcher said foreign ministers have assured their support, “but also repeatedly said that progress would be hard until after Israeli elections. Now we’re told to wait for the formation of a government.

“This is not an acceptable excuse,” he added, citing international law and the consequences of delays, blockages and funding cuts.

Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Wednesday that Rome has launched a new emergency initiative worth 5 million euros ($5.5m) to provide immediate assistance to the Gaza Strip following the floods.

The death toll from Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza has surged to 74,653 civilians killed since October 7, 2023, according to health authorities in Gaza.

An additional 176,007 Palestinians have been injured in the past three years. More than 5,878 people have been injured since the Gaza “ceasefire” agreement came into effect in October 2025.