In yet another horrific assault on Palestinian healthcare system in Gaza and a major violation of the US-brokered “ceasefire” deal, Israeli warplanes struck Nasser Medical Complex in the southern city of Khan Younis on Thursday, November 12.
The deadly airstrike, which hit the Al-Yassin surgery building at the complex, killed six people and injured dozens of others. Among the dead was a 13-year-old boy and a surgeon, Dr. Rizk Abu Shaaira. Dr. Shaaira who appears in the recently-released documentary “American Doctor”.
Nasser Medical Complex: a target for frequent Israeli assaults
The massacre is not the first Israeli offensive on the facility, as the site has been targeted in multiple previous airstrikes since day one of Israel’s genocidal aggression on the Gaza Strip.
On October 7, 2023, an Israeli airstrike targeted a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance outside Nasser Medical Complex, leaving several casualties including a paramedic.
On March 23, 2025, the surgical department of the hospital was struck, leaving five people killed.
Less than two months later, the burns unit within the same surgical department was targeted by an Israeli drone. Palestinian journalist Hassan Islayeh and local police official Ahmed Al-Qudra were assassinated in the strike, while twelve other patients receiving medical treatment were wounded.
On May 19, 2025, Israeli fighter jets hit a warehouse at Nasser Medical Complex, destroying 30% of the medical supplies stored there.
Three months later, the Israeli air forces carried out a double-tap strike on the complex, killing 22 people. The fatalities included five journalists and four medical personnel.
In addition to the repeated strikes, the renowned medical facility, which is deemed the largest hospital in southern Gaza, was raided and besieged between January and February 2024.
At the time, Israeli forces had surrounded the compound for weeks, targeting it with heavy shelling and sniper fire that depleted vital supplies of fuel, food, and medicine. The Israeli military also forced thousands of displaced civilians to evacuate the facility, which was their only shelter during the coldest months of the year.
Read more: Yet another catastrophic winter in Gaza
Between March and April of the same year, Israeli forces renewed the siege on the hospital, which resulted in a complete operational shutdown. After the military withdrew from the facility, investigators discovered mass graves containing hundreds of bodies on the property.
Israel uses same pretext, accuses Hamas of using facility as military headquarters
Citing the same pretext it already used every time a medical facility in Gaza was struck, the Israeli military announced that it attacked Nasser Hospital on Thursday because Hamas allegedly converted its second floor into a military headquarters.
The Israeli forces further claimed that the commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, Mohammad Abu Ismail, and a number of the Palestinian group’s fighters were targeted in the airstrike.
Hamas describes Israel’s claims as “repeated lies” to cover up a new war crime
Hamas issued a statement refuting Israel’s allegations and describing them as “repeated lies” that aim to cover up the crime of targeting a medical facility.
“The attacks on patients, doctors, and health workers disproves the occupation’s narrative and exposes its systematic targeting of the health sector in Gaza,” the statement asserted.
Analysts viewed this escalation as an attempt by Israeli Caretaker Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to prove that he is more capable of “eradicating Hamas” than his rival, Gadi Eisenkot, especially as the latter is racing against time to form a new Israeli government – a race for which civilians in Gaza and other parts of the region would seemingly pay the price.
Read more: Anti-Netanyahu bloc led by Eisenkot tasked with forming new Israeli government
It is worth noting that Thursday saw the killing of a number of other people in separate Israeli attacks across different parts of the war-ravaged enclave, including Gaza City (particularly near the entrance of Al-Shifa Hospital), Deir al-Balah, Bureij, and Jabalia.
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