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| A medical worker inspects damage at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on 12 November 2026. Photograph: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP, published by KPBS. |
An Israeli air strike killed at least six Palestinians, including a surgeon, and disabled a surgical ward at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza early on Thursday, 12 November, according to Palestinian health officials and reports from inside the complex.
Gaza’s Health Ministry identified the surgeon as Rizk Abu Shaira. The attack damaged several floors of the hospital in Khan Younis, scattering debris across rooms containing beds and medical equipment.
Reporting from the damaged surgical department, Al Jazeera English’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said medical sources had recorded six deaths and 30 injuries. Patients and healthcare workers were among those wounded.
The hospital’s director said staff received no warning before the strike. He described the danger facing patients and medical teams and expressed concern that the facility would face further attacks.
Israel’s military said it had targeted Muhammad Abu Ismail, whom it identified as the commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, alongside other members of the group. It accused Hamas of using the hospital complex for military purposes.
Hamas denied using hospitals as military bases and said the facilities provided medical care. ABC News reported that Israel released graphics identifying the building it struck but did not provide further evidence supporting its allegations about the hospital’s use.
Inside Nasser, Abu Azzoum showed broken concrete, exposed metal and damage extending through the upper floors. He reported that at least two missiles had penetrated the building before reaching the surgical ward, leaving that treatment area unable to function.
Medical teams were caring for patients when the strike occurred. The damage disrupted treatment and added to the workload of staff who also had to respond to casualties from the attack.
British surgeon Goher Rahbour, who is volunteering at Nasser, told the Associated Press that he was on the fourth floor of the surgical department when the explosion shook the building. He said the recovery area on that floor had been destroyed.
Rahbour said he had operated alongside Abu Shaira only hours before his colleague was killed.
Medical Aid for Palestinians said two missiles struck the upper floors of the hospital’s Yassin Building shortly after midnight, citing information from the Palestinian Health Ministry. The organisation reported extensive damage to surgical and intensive care areas.
It also said the ministry had reported that one missile failed to explode and remained inside the building, creating an additional danger for those still receiving or providing care.
A nurse whose account the organisation published described staff working with Civil Defence teams to rescue patients and move survivors to other departments. Colleagues were among the injured, while some patients the nurse had been caring for were killed.
The hospital’s director said Nasser served nearly one million people and received large numbers of patients requiring treatment and surgery. He described the latest strike as the seventh attack on the complex.
“This is the seventh time.”
He also expressed fear that the targeting would continue.
“And I think this will not stop.”
Nasser is one of the few hospitals still functioning in Gaza. Damage to its surgical facilities reduces the space and equipment available to treat patients in the southern part of the territory, where the hospital remains a major referral centre.
Abu Azzoum also recalled earlier Israeli military operations at the complex and the burial of Palestinians within its grounds during the war.
The hospital has suffered previous deadly strikes. An attack in August 2025 killed at least 20 people, including journalists and healthcare workers, according to Reuters.
Thursday’s attack occurred against the background of the ceasefire agreement reached in October 2025. Israel says Hamas is attempting to rebuild its capabilities, while Hamas says it remains committed to the agreement and accuses Israel of undermining it.
Hospitals receive special protection under international humanitarian law. The International Committee of the Red Cross explains that medical facilities can lose that protection if they are used, outside their humanitarian role, for acts harmful to the enemy, and an appropriate warning remains unheeded.
The organisation also stresses that providing medical treatment to wounded combatants does not, by itself, constitute an act harmful to the enemy.