The dead included a surgeon and at least 12 other people were injured, health authorities said. Israel said it targeted a Hamas commander and other militants.
An Israeli airstrike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, killed at least 6 people early on 12 November, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said. The dead included a surgeon, and the ministry said medical staff, patients and their companions were among those killed.
France 24 reported that a teenage boy was among the dead. The hospital director said those killed included a disabled man.
Eyewitnesses told the BBC that a single missile fired by a warplane hit a building housing surgical wards and intensive care units. It followed an October 2025 ceasefire agreement, after which Israeli strikes continued; Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the agreement.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reported that the overnight Israeli strike devastated Nasser Hospital’s surgical department, destroying medical facilities and leaving parts of the hospital out of service. Al Jazeera reported that 30 people were wounded in the strike.
Hospital director Dr Ahmed al-Fara said 28 people were wounded and that radiology, laboratories, surgical operations and inpatient surgical wards had suspended services. He said the strike caused extensive damage to intensive care and surgical departments.
A later France 24 account gave a lower count of 20 wounded. It said the surgery department had been put out of service and serves half of Gaza’s 2 million residents. An earlier NPR account had put the number injured at a minimum of 12.
Basal told AFP that at least 20 people were wounded. Al Jazeera also reported at least 20 injured, including staff.
UNICEF estimated on 9 November that 950,000 displaced people lived in flood-exposed areas, including 400,000 at extremely high risk, as families faced winter in makeshift shelters.
Early casualty estimates also varied. Gaza Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal initially gave a minimum of 4 deaths at the hospital in an account that included those deaths among at least 9 people killed across Gaza. Civil Defence, which works under the Hamas-run interior ministry, carries out recovery work.
In an early BBC account, a Civil Defence official reported at least six deaths. An intermediate BBC account cited an official’s estimate of at least five, while noting that Basal had earlier told AFP six people had been killed. The BBC’s updated account attributed a toll of at least six to the health ministry.
The Israeli military said it struck a senior Hamas figure and other armed-wing operatives inside the hospital, alleging that they used it as a command center. The military and Israel Security Agency said they had taken steps to reduce harm to civilians, including using precision munitions and aerial surveillance.
Hamas denied using the hospital as a base and accused Israel of committing a war crime by killing patients and medical staff. It did not immediately say whether a leader had been targeted, wounded or killed. Gaza’s health ministry condemned the strike as a violation of international law.
Nasser Hospital was also hit by a double Israeli strike in August 2025 that killed at least 20 people, including journalists and health workers. The war began after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023.
The BBC said Israel prevents it from reporting independently from inside Gaza and that it was unable to verify details of the incident.
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