At least six people have been killed and about 20 injured in an Israeli air strike on Nasser hospital, the biggest in the southern Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run health ministry says. Eyewitnesses told the BBC that a single missile fired by a warplane hit a building containing the surgical wards and intensive care units overnight.

Attack condemned as violation of international law

The health ministry said medical staff, patients and companions were killed, among them surgeon Dr Rizk Abu Shaira. It condemned the attack as a “flagrant violation of international laws and conventions.”

The Israeli military said it targeted a commander of Hamas’s armed wing and other fighters who had used the hospital as a “headquarters” to plan attacks on its forces. Hamas said that Israel was spreading “false narratives” in a “blatant attempt to cover up a new war crime.”

Challenges in verifying reports

Under international law, hospitals have a protected status, but they have been repeatedly targeted during the Gaza war. Israel accuses Hamas, which retains security control of parts of Gaza not occupied by Israeli troops, of cynically exploiting civilian infrastructure. It says the group stores weapons and runs command and control rooms in hospitals, which Hamas denies.

Israel does not allow international news organisations, including the BBC, into Gaza, making it difficult to verify what is happening in the territory. In a video posted on social media, a paramedic from the Civil Defence agency who arrived at the building after the strike early on Thursday said the missile penetrated the five-storey structure and hit a room in the surgical department.

Ongoing conflict and casualties

A spokesman for the Civil Defence, which operates under the Hamas-run interior ministry, initially said that five people had been killed and 20 others injured. Videos shared by activists showed thick smoke inside the building and extensive destruction on the second floor, where medical equipment and beds had been scattered by the blast.

Local activists have also circulated claims that the strike may have targeted a senior Hamas security figure who was hiding inside the building. Speaking to reporters in the aftermath of the strike, the director of Nasser hospital said the building had been hit in a vertical strike, causing extensive damage.

Nasser hospital was hit by a double Israeli strike in August 2025, which killed at least 20 people, including journalists and health workers. Israeli strikes on Gaza have continued despite a ceasefire agreement in October last year. More than 1,620 people have been killed since then, according to the territory’s health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.

Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the ceasefire. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has recently worsened as a result of heavy rains that reportedly flooded tens of thousands of tents housing displaced families.

The Gaza war was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, when about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. Since then, more than 74,650 people have been killed in Gaza, the health ministry says.