IDF targets top Hamas commander in strike on south Gaza hospital; 6 said killed

An Israeli precision strike on a hospital in southern Gaza overnight targeted a Hamas brigade commander, the military said Thursday morning, as medics in the Strip reported six killed, including a surgeon, and at least 20 wounded in the attack.

According to the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security agency, the strike shortly after midnight on the Nasser Hospital complex in Khan Younis targeted Muhammad Abu Ismail, the commander of the terror group’s Khan Younis Brigade, “along with additional terrorists who were hiding” at the medical center.

The Hamas operatives were targeted to “remove a threat, as they were advancing terror plots against Israeli civilians and IDF troops, after Hamas established a presence on the hospital grounds and turned it into a headquarters for military and terror activities against IDF troops and the State of Israel,” the joint statement said.

Though hospitals are protected sites under international law, they can lose that protection if used for military purposes.

Abu Ismail’s fate remained unclear, and the military and Shin Bet said they were still reviewing the results of the overnight strike. The army also said it took measures to reduce harm to civilians in the strike.

Mahmoud Basal, the spokesperson for Gaza’s Hamas-run Civil Defense agency, said the Israeli airstrike hit the surgery department of the hospital, causing extensive damage and killing a doctor alongside several other people.

Medics identified the dead surgeon as Rezik Abushira.

Footage from inside the hospital showed extensive damage, with rubble and furniture strewn across rooms and wires dangling from damaged ceilings.

People carried injured patients on stretchers through debris-covered corridors, while others helped the wounded walk through the wreckage. Several bodies were also seen being carried away as firefighters worked outside.

The Israeli military took seven hours to issue its first comment on the overnight strike. News of the attack on the medical center was widely reported by international media throughout the night, while the IDF remained silent.

Only at 7 a.m. did the military issue its first comment on the strike, with an updated statement on the target at 10 a.m.

The IDF Spokespersons’ Unit often waits for the results of a strike before issuing a comment, although it remains unclear why the military did not at least provide some initial response on the attack that targeted a medical center.

In a statement, the IDF and Shin Bet said that the targeted Hamas brigade commander “was responsible for managing the activities of the brigade’s terrorists and directing them in advancing and carrying out terror plots against IDF troops and Israeli civilians.”

The IDF and Shin Bet said Abu Ismail was also responsible for holding numerous hostages in captivity during the war.

His predecessor was killed by Israel in September.

The military said it took measures to reduce harm to civilians in the strike, including by issuing “advance warnings” to the population and by using “precision munitions and aerial surveillance.”

The IDF and Shin Bet said that Hamas had stored weapons inside the hospital complex, conducted “interrogations and torture,” operated command centers from the compound, and used the medical center’s facilities as surveillance posts and shelters for operatives, all of which they say “constitutes a blatant violation of international law and cynical exploitation of civilian infrastructure.

“The IDF and Shin Bet view Hamas’s cynical use of civilian and medical infrastructure for military purposes, while endangering the lives of patients, medical staff, and civilians, gravely,” the statement added.

A Hamas spokesperson condemned the strike as a “full-fledged war crime.”

Israel has repeatedly offered evidence of the regular use of Gazan medical facilities by Palestinian terror groups as bases of operations due to their protected status.

A top Hamas commander was killed in an Israeli strike at Nasser Hospital last year, and Israeli hostages have said they were held at the medical center in Khan Younis.

Another strike on Nasser Hospital last year killed 22 people, including five journalists. The military has claimed that among the victims were six Hamas operatives, including one who took part in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel.

Earlier this year, the aid group Doctors Without Borders said it had suspended noncritical medical activities at Nasser Hospital due to the presence of armed men at the medical facility. And last year, a doctor who also served as a spokesperson for Nasser Hospital hinted that he had been threatened by Palestinian Islamic Jihad due to his refusal to let the terror group’s operatives enter and use the hospital.

Israel in recent months has increasingly targeted operatives in Gaza, including numerous terrorists who took part in the October 7 assault, saying they posed a threat to Israeli forces.

According to the military, many of the recent strikes have focused on Hamas operatives involved in building up the terror group’s force and civil control mechanisms in the Strip.

Implementation of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza has stalled, with Hamas refusing to disarm and Israel refusing to withdraw from any part of Gaza until that condition is met.