An Israeli air strike on a building at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza killed at least six people, including a surgeon, and injured 20 others early on Thursday, according to a Gaza civil defence spokesman cited by Reuters. The Israeli strike hits Gaza Nasser Hospital at the heart of its surgery department in Khan Younis, causing extensive damage to a facility that treats the wounded of a war now in its fourth year. The strike came a year after a ceasefire that was meant to protect civilians.
The strike hit the surgery department of the hospital in Khan Younis, causing major damage, according to spokesman Mahmoud Basal. The surgeon killed was identified by doctors as Rezik Abushira. His death removes one more skilled medical worker from a health system already stretched to breaking point, where hospitals have become both treatment centres and targets, and where every loss of staff deepens the crisis for the patients who remain.
Video footage from Reuters taken inside the hospital shows extensive damage, debris and scattered furniture, cables hanging from damaged ceilings, and wounded people being evacuated on stretchers through corridors covered in rubble. The images capture the chaos of a medical facility turned into a scene of destruction, with staff working among the wreckage to move the injured to whatever care is still available.
Israeli strike hits Gaza Nasser Hospital surgery wing
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military at the time of publication. A Hamas spokesman called the strike a full fledged war crime. The Israeli strike hits Gaza Nasser Hospital as Israel, which has intensified its attacks on the enclave, says Hamas is seeking to regroup and rebuild its arsenal. Hamas says it remains committed to the year old ceasefire and accuses Israel of seeking to undermine the agreement.
The competing claims frame a familiar dispute. Israel says its operations target Hamas fighters and infrastructure, and that the group uses civilian buildings for military purposes. Hamas says the strikes target civilians and civilian infrastructure, and that the ceasefire should have ended the killing. The Israeli strike hits Gaza Nasser Hospital a year into that ceasefire, and the gap between the agreement on paper and the reality on the ground has grown harder to ignore.
Death toll passes 74,000 since October 2023
At least 1,600 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since the agreement was concluded, according to the territory’s health authorities, who put the total death toll since the start of the Israeli offensive in October 2023 at more than 74,000. The Israeli strike hits Gaza Nasser Hospital as the enclave’s health system struggles to cope with the wounded from a year of continued attacks, and each new incident adds to a toll that has already reshaped the enclave and its people.
For the staff of Nasser Hospital, the strike is a blow to their ability to work at all. Surgery departments need clean rooms, working equipment and steady power, none of which survive a direct hit easily. The Israeli strike hits Gaza Nasser Hospital in a place where the wounded arrive every day, and where the loss of an operating theatre can mean the difference between life and death for patients with no other hospital to turn to. Rebuilding that capacity will take time, money and materials that are all in short supply in Gaza.
The absence of an immediate Israeli comment leaves the facts to be established by the hospital’s own staff and by the footage from inside the building. What is clear is that six people are dead, 20 are injured, a surgeon is among the dead, and a hospital that was supposed to be a place of healing has again become a place of mourning. The ceasefire, a year old, is under strain, and the people of Gaza are paying the price, with hospitals once again caught between the fighting and the patients they serve. The Israeli strike hits Gaza Nasser Hospital at a moment when the protection promised by the ceasefire is wearing thin.