Israeli strike on Gaza's Nasser hospital kills at least six including a surgeon, military says Hamas commanders were operating inside the complex, health officials count 1,600 dead since the ceasefire

Images

bnonews.com

An Israeli airstrike hit a building at Nasser Medical Complex in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza early on Thursday, killing at least six people, among them a surgeon, according to Gaza's Civil Defense Service. Twenty others were injured.

The local outlet Gaza Now described the attack as shelling rather than an airstrike, and said it had damaged the hospital's surgical department. Footage from the complex showed broken panels and other debris scattered across the floor of a room lined with hospital beds, dust still hanging over the room and a nearby corridor.

The Israeli military and the Israel Security Agency said in a joint statement that the strike had targeted a senior Hamas member and other members of the group's military wing who were operating inside the hospital. The statement accused Hamas of using the complex as a command centre, of storing weapons there, and of holding interrogations and torture in parts of the building. Precision munitions and aerial surveillance had been used to reduce harm to civilians, the agencies said. They did not say whether the man they targeted was among the dead.

Gaza health officials say Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,600 Palestinians since the ceasefire was agreed, Reuters reports. The truce has now held long enough to accumulate its own death toll.