IDF says Hamas commander targeted at Gaza hospital previously held hostages at medical center

The commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, who was targeted in a strike at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis overnight, was responsible for holding hostages in Hamas captivity during the war, including inside the medical center where he was struck, the military says.

The fate of the Hamas commander, Muhammad Abu Ismail, remains unclear as the IDF and Shin Bet assess the results of the strike.

In a statement, the military says that Abu Ismail took charge of the Khan Younis Brigade following the killing of its previous commander, Muhammad al-Yazouri, in September.

The IDF says that Nasser Hospital, like other medical facilities in the Strip, is used by Hamas. The military says the second floor of Nasser Hospital “serves as a Hamas military headquarters, where civilians are not permitted to enter and which is under strict guard, as it is used by the organization’s commanders,” including Abu Ismail.

“Throughout the war, dozens of hostages were held at Nasser Hospital, many of them from Kibbutz Nahal Oz, including women, children, elderly people and foreign nationals,” the IDF says.

Former hostages have also previously confirmed being held at Nasser Hospital.

The military says that Abu Ismail had been responsible for holding hostages Sgt. 1st Class Nimrod Cohen, Sgt. 1st Class Edan Alexander, Matan Zangauker, Avera Mengistu, and the bodies of Col. Asaf Hamami, Staff Sgt. Oz Daniel and Cpt. Omer Neutra.

Alongside Abu Ismail, several other Hamas operatives were targeted in the strike on the hospital. The military says they include Muawad Tawfiq Mahmoud Abu Zarifa, an engineering team commander in a Hamas combat and administrative support company, and Khaled Osama Abu Anza, head of communications in the operations department of Hamas’s intelligence arm.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry said six people were killed in the strike, including a Palestinian surgeon.

The IDF says the Hamas operatives were targeted to “remove a threat,” after they turned the Nasser Hospital compound “into a headquarters and used it to advance dozens of terror plots against our forces and rebuild the brigade’s military capabilities.”

Measures were taken to avoid harm to civilians in the strike, including using “precision munitions and aerial surveillance,” the military says, adding that “the strike was also precisely targeted at the room from which the brigade commander and the terrorists were conducting military activity.”

“Additionally, before carrying out the strike, the IDF had repeatedly warned and demanded that military activity at the hospital cease, including on several recent occasions. Despite the warnings, military activity at the hospital did not stop,” the IDF adds.