Israeli Strike on Gaza Hospital Kills Surgeon and Five Others
An Israeli airstrike hit Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis early Thursday, killing six people, including a surgeon and a 13-year-old boy, Gaza's Health Ministry said. The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas commander. Surgeries at the hospital have been suspended.
An Israeli strike on a Gaza hospital killed six people early Thursday, November 12, 2026, including a surgeon and a 13-year-old boy, Gaza's Health Ministry said. The airstrike hit Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, one of the main hospitals still operating in the territory.
The Israeli military said it was targeting a Hamas commander and other militants. The commander it identified was not among the dead.
The strike hit the hospital's surgical wing, the ministry and witnesses said. Footage showed several wards and operating rooms heavily damaged or destroyed, with debris scattered across beds and equipment and rebar dangling from holes in the ceiling.
At least 28 people were wounded.
The dead included Dr. Rizk Abu Shaira, a general surgeon, and at least two patients, one of them the boy, according to the ministry.
Hospital director Ahmed al-Farra said no warning came before the attack. The Israeli army said it had warned "on several occasions, including recently, that the military activity at the hospital be halted."
Al-Farra said surgeries and other services had been suspended because of the damage. Staff were already struggling with supply shortages and what he called "miserable" conditions.
He said other nearby medical facilities were not equipped for the "specialized surgeries" Nasser had been providing. Patients who need them, he said, now "face an unknown fate."
Al-Farra called for a forceful response from the international community. "Imagine if this event happened in another country in the world. Would the world fall silent about it," he asked, answering that it would not.
British surgeon Goher Rahbour, who volunteers at the hospital with the group IDEALS, said the strike came just after midnight and shook the whole building. He was on the fourth floor of the surgical department.
"It was extremely smoky," Rahbour said. The recovery area on that floor was reduced to rubble, he said, and six operating theaters are now out of bounds.
He had operated alongside Abu Shaira until about 8 p.m., he said. "Lovely guy, happy and smiling."
Hospitals and their staff are protected under international humanitarian law. A hospital can lose that protection if it is used for military purposes.
Israel has accused Hamas of using hospitals as command centers and of hiding fighters in them. Hospital staff and international medical groups working in Gaza deny this about Nasser.
A report from the United Nations, the World Bank and the European Union said in April that more than 1,800 medical facilities in Gaza have been partially or completely destroyed since the conflict began.
Nasser was hit before. In August 2025, a double strike on an external stairwell killed at least 22 people, including journalists, medics and first responders. Israel refutes allegations of potential war crimes over that attack.
Rahbour said the past week had already been punishing, with torrential rain and flooding affecting 70,000 tents. "You have to question what on earth is going on," he said, asking what the motive could be for killing doctors and medical staff.
