Israeli strike on Gaza hospital kills six and deepens health crisis

An Israeli airstrike hit the surgical wing of Nasser Hospital, the largest hospital in the southern Gaza Strip, killing six people including a surgeon and a 13-year-old boy. The strike heavily damaged operating rooms and patient wards.

The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas commander using the hospital as a base, but provided no evidence for the claim. Israel says it is targeting militants.

“The strike that hit Nasser Hospital’s surgical wing killed six people, including a surgeon and a 13-year-old boy, and heavily damaged operating rooms and patient wards.”

Israel has carried out near-daily strikes in Gaza despite a ceasefire agreement with Hamas that took effect in October 2025. Direct attacks on hospitals have become rarer during the truce, but Thursday’s strike showed the health system is still struggling to recover.

Throughout the war, the Israeli military besieged multiple hospitals around Gaza, often surrounding them for weeks and battering them with strikes and gunfire while patients and staff were trapped inside. Some sieges ended with troops storming hospitals or forcing staff and patients to evacuate, and troops detained hundreds of healthcare workers.

Two major raids left Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, the territory’s largest, in ruins. Hospitals and other medical facilities have frequently come under Israeli fire or been hit by airstrikes the military says target Hamas militants.

During some of the worst months, as few as 14 of Gaza’s 36 prewar hospitals were functioning, and shortages of medicine meant patients writhed in pain without painkillers while deadly infections ran rampant.

The World Health Organization says it has documented more than 1,050 attacks on health facilities in Gaza, causing more than 1,000 deaths. The United Nations says more than 1,700 medical personnel were killed or injured.