Israeli strike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories, kills surgeon and at least five others

KHAN YUNIS: Israeli fire killed 11 people in Gaza on Thursday, including a surgeon killed in a strike on a major hospital, medics and officials said. In the same report, they said a 9-month-old baby died of hypothermia in a displacement tent after severe weather.

The strike on the surgery ward of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis came early on Thursday and was described as the deadliest single strike since Israel’s elections last month. According to the source, it killed at least six Palestinians, including a 13-year-old boy, and wounded nearly 30 others. Two missiles crashed through the roof of the five-storey building, knocking out the surgery department, which the source said serves half of Gaza’s 2 million people.

The Israeli military confirmed the attack on the medical complex. It said the strike targeted Muhammad Abu Ismail, commander of Hamas’ Khan Yunis brigade, and additional militants hiding inside. The army said Abu Ismail directed terrorist attacks and that Hamas used the hospital to store weapons and conduct interrogations. Hamas denied using the hospital for military purposes and said Israel had put forward a false narrative to justify the airstrikes.

Among those killed was Rezik Abushira, a surgeon featured in a 2026 documentary who had worked alongside visiting US doctors. Goher Rahbour, a British surgeon volunteering at the hospital, said the strike occurred just after midnight. “It was very loud, very quick. The building shook, there was a lot of smoke that came up,” Rahbour said. Ayman Abu Obeid, a doctor injured in the attack, said he was on an overnight shift when an explosion ripped through the room. “All of a sudden the world turned upside down. It went dark all at once,” he said from a hospital bed.

The rescue agency, as cited by the source, reported five more deaths on Thursday. One person was killed by “Israeli gunfire” near the al-Bureij camp, and another was killed in an “Israeli drone strike” targeting a vehicle near Deir al-Balah, both in central Gaza. Two more people were killed in an Israeli strike on a vehicle near Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital, and one was killed in a drone strike in Jabalia in northern Gaza. The source said these deaths brought Thursday’s toll to 11. The Israeli military said it struck a target in Deir al-Balah and another in Gaza City, but denied that the second strike took place near Al-Shifa hospital.

Separately, the source reported that a 9-month-old baby died of hypothermia after days of harsh weather and flooding that displaced thousands of Palestinians living in tents. A doctor who saw the child and spoke on condition of anonymity said that Kinan Ahmed Raqiq “died from hypothermia inside his family’s displacement tent” in Khan Yunis. The child’s father, Ahmed Raqiq, said: “I woke up only to see his skin had turned blue so I rushed him to Nasser hospital, but he had already died from hypothermia and frozen to death.” He said outside the hospital, “I found myself holding my son wrapped in burial shroud.” Protecting the youngest from exposure in a flooded tent is a matter of basic care for the vulnerable (Psalm 82:3).

The source said heavy rain last week flooded tens of thousands of tents across Gaza, where about 65 per cent of the population remains displaced. Five people, including three children, died the day after flooding when a sandy embankment collapsed onto their tents. James Elder, spokesman on Gaza for the UN children’s agency, Unicef, warned that the flooding was just the beginning of the cold season. “It’s very important to know how bad things are in Gaza. It’s not yet winter,” Elder said.

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