Ismail Barhoum and medics die in attack, which Israel says was based on extensive intelligence
An Israeli airstrike on Sunday night hit the largest hospital in southern Gaza, killing five people, including a Hamas political leader and Palestinian medics, the militant group has said, in an attack that wounded others, causing a large fire.
The Gaza health ministry said the strike hit the surgery department at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis. The Israeli military said its attack followed extensive intelligence and used precise munitions to minimise harm at the site.
Hamas said a member of its political office, Ismail Barhoum, had been killed.
Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, confirmed the target was Barhoum. The military did not name the target, which it described only as “a key terrorist” in Hamas.
Hamas’s al-Aqsa TV said Barhoum was being treated at the hospital for wounds sustained in a previous attack.
Video on social media showed a fire blazing on the third storey of what appeared to be the hospital. Reuters could not immediately verify the footage.
Sunday’s Israeli attack was the second on a health facility in Gaza in three days.
On Friday, Israel blew up central Gaza’s Turkish-Palestinian Friendship hospital, Gaza’s only specialised cancer treatment hospital, which had already been severely damaged by Israeli airstrikes since October 2023.
Reached by the Guardian, Steve Cutts, CEO for Medical Aid for Palestinians, whose doctors were operating at Nasser hospital, said the attack “demonstrates once again that nowhere is safe in Gaza. At least eight people, including medical staff, were injured in the strike and a 16-year-old boy recovering from earlier surgery was killed.”
He added: “Coming just two days after Israeli forces completely destroyed the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship hospital, it is clear that, having broken the ceasefire, Israel has resumed attacks on Palestinian healthcare facilities, thereby endangering the lives of health workers, patients and other civilians. Thankfully, on this occasion, our emergency medical team personnel who were in the hospital at the time of the attack were uninjured. Hospitals must be protected, and healthcare must not be a target.”
He called for attacks on Palestinian health facilities to be investigated and “any perpetrators held to account”.
Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of using hospitals as hiding places for weapons and command centres, a charge the Palestinian militant group denies.
Palestinians in Gaza have again been fleeing for their lives after Israel launched its new offensive in the territory, which started on Tuesday with a wave of airstrikes that killed more than 400 people, mostly civilians, ending two months of relative calm.
