BEIRUT: A deadly airstrike on the biggest hospital in the southern Gaza Strip highlighted the devastation that Israel’s campaign has wreaked on the Palestinian territory’s health care system over the past three years.
The strike that hit Nasser Hospital’s surgical wing killed six people, including a surgeon and a 13-year-old boy, and heavily damaged operating rooms and patient wards. The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas commander using the hospital as a base, though it did not provide evidence for the claim.
Israel has carried out near daily strikes in Gaza despite a ceasefire agreement with Hamas that took effect in October 2025. Israel says it is targeting militants. Israel launched its campaign in Gaza in retaliation for Hamas’ deadly October 2023 attack on southern Israel.
Direct attacks on hospitals have become rarer during the truce. But Thursday’s strike underscored how Gaza’s health system is still struggling to recover.
Here is a look at Israel’s attacks on hospitals, its accusations against Hamas and the impact on Gaza’s health care system.
Israel has attacked Gaza hospitals frequently in the war
The Israeli military besieged multiple hospitals around Gaza throughout the war, often surrounding them for weeks and battering them with strikes and gunfire while patients and staff were trapped inside and supplies ran out.
