Israeli strike on Gaza hospital kills 6, health authorities say
An Israeli airstrike targeting the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza killed six people and wounded at least a dozen more, Gaza's Health Ministry said Thursday. The strike was carried out early Thursday, according to the Israeli military, which said it struck "a senior Hamas terrorist" and other militants "while they were operating within Nasser Hospital," without providing evidence.
Israel accuses Hamas and its allies of using hospitals as cover for military activity.
In the statement, the Israeli military said Hamas was using the hospital as "a command center for military and terrorist activities."
The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry said the strike hit the hospital's surgery department and that a doctor was among the dead. An Associated Press journalist at the scene said parts of the building's second floor were destroyed.
Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis is one of the few functioning medical facilities left in the Palestinian territory, where healthcare infrastructure has been decimated by the yearslong war.
Israeli forces have previously attacked and raided Nasser Hospital. In 2025, the military killed five journalists — including AP contributor Mariam Dagga — when it struck a gathering point for local reporters at the complex.
The war started on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage. Since then, Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 74,600 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government but whose figures are generally considered reliable by the international community.
Israel has continued to strike Gaza despite a U.S.-backed ceasefire and controls at least 60% of the enclave. Since the truce went into effect in October 2025, Israeli strikes and gunfire have killed 1,622 people, health authorities say. Five Israeli soldiers have also been killed during that period.
Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton visited the Egyptian side of the border with southern Gaza this week, hoping to use his celebrity status to raise awareness of conditions inside the Palestinian enclave. In a statement posted on social media he condemned Israel's actions in Gaza as genocide — an allegation made by United Nations experts but vehemently rejected by Israel.
Hamilton said he saw "walls stretching for miles, built to keep them in," referring to Gazans, for whom the territory had become, in his words "like an open-air prison."
He said there were "food trucks lined up ready to go" into Gaza at the Rafah border crossing, "but they're regularly not allowed in or face major delays. The first driver in line that I spoke to had already been waiting over 12 hours. At the nearby logistics center, I saw the hard work of the aid workers, but I also saw what gets rejected for crazy reasons. Sleeping bags, first aid kits, medical equipment, wheelchairs, even footballs for kids.Israel needs to fulfil its obligations under the ceasefire and let the aid trucks in. No excuse."
Axios reported last week that President Trump, in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the U.S. midterm elections, pushed the Israeli leader to take steps to implement a Gaza peace plan laid out by Mr. Trump. The nature of that call and Mr. Trump's remarks have not been confirmed by the White House.
Mr. Trump's special envoy Jared Kushner directly linked a lack of progress on the rehabilitation of the war-torn Gaza Strip and on the peace effort to Israel's recent elections, which delivered a sigificant loss for Netanyahu.
Kushner's remarks, a rare criticism of Netanyahu's government by a senior Trump administration official over his Gaza policy, came after the Israeli leader rejected the U.S. plan touted by Mr. Trump as a "historic agreement for the complete disarmament of Hamas and all other groups in Gaza." Netanyahu vowed there would be no withdrawal of Israel's military from Gaza until Hamas is "genuinely" disarmed.
U.S. efforts to advance the plan to disarm Hamas and open the way for investment to rebuild Gaza have stalled amid disagreements with Israel and Hamas over the proposal.
