• Analysis
Gaza Hospital Strike Kills Six at Nasser Hospital as Baby Dies of Hypothermia
An overnight Israeli air strike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, killed at least six Palestinians on Thursday, including a surgeon and a 13-year-old boy, medics said. The same day, a nine-month-old baby died of hypothermia in a displacement tent in the same city.
What struck the hospital
Medics and witnesses said two missiles crashed through the roof of the five-storey surgery building at Nasser Hospital, Gaza's main hospital in the south, causing extensive damage. At least six Palestinians were killed and twenty others wounded, according to medics.
- •The strike hit a building containing surgery wards at the Khan Younis facility.
- •The surgery department, which serves half of Gaza's 2 million people, was knocked out of service.
- •Hospital officials say Israel's military has struck the Nasser Hospital complex at least seven times since the start of the Gaza war.
Who Israel said it targeted
Israel's military said it targeted Muhammad Abu Ismail, whom it described as "the commander of Hamas' Khan Younis Brigade", and alleged that militants were hiding inside and operating from the Nasser Hospital compound.
Hamas rejected the claim that it had used the hospital as a base for operations and did not immediately comment on whether a leader had been targeted, wounded or killed.
A surgeon among the dead
Those killed included Rezik Abushira, a surgeon who was featured in the 2026 documentary "American Doctor" alongside three visiting US doctors providing care in Gaza. Gaza's education ministry said the dead also included a 13-year-old boy.
Dr Ayman Abu Obeid, who was wounded in the attack, said he was on an overnight shift when an explosion ripped through the room where he and others were sleeping.
"All of a sudden the world turned upside down. It went dark all at once."
Flooding and a baby's death
The hospital strike came amid severe weather in Gaza. Heavy rain last week flooded tens of thousands of people's tents, and hundreds of displaced families fled camps in Gaza City and central and northern areas after they were inundated by rainwater. Five people, including three children, died the day after the flooding when a sandy embankment collapsed onto their tents.
Kinan Ahmed Raqiq, a nine-month-old baby, died of hypothermia on Thursday inside his family's displacement tent in Khan Younis, his father and a doctor said. The doctor, who saw the child, spoke on condition of anonymity.
His father, Ahmed Raqiq, told AFP: "I woke up only to see his skin had turned blue so I rushed him to Nasser hospital, but he had already died from hypothermia."
Ahmed Raqiq added: "I am in complete shock. I found myself holding my son wrapped in burial shroud."
- •OCHA said that as of November 8, 26,000 households were affected by storms.
- •OCHA said around 65 percent of Gaza's people are still living displaced in tents or other temporary shelter.
- •UNICEF spokesman James Elder warned the flooding was just the beginning of the cold season: "We're weeks away from winter, so we are getting unprecedented rain and cold."
- •Elder also said: "It's very important to know how bad things are in Gaza. It's not yet winter."
Three more Palestinians were killed later on Thursday - two in an Israeli airstrike on a car in Gaza City and one by Israeli gunfire in Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza - taking the day's death toll to at least nine, medics said. Israel's military said the vehicle strike hit a Hamas militant without giving further details; it did not comment on the Bureij incident.
Israel and Hamas declared a ceasefire on October 10, 2025, but Israel has kept striking the territory, vowing to kill anyone involved in the October 7 attack.
