KHAN YUNIS, Palestinian Territories, 12, 2026 (Net) – 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.
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.
