Israel Launches Nine Bunker Busting Missiles at Gaza’s European Hospital

Without providing evidence, Tel Aviv claimed they were targeting a Hamas leader as well as a command and control center beneath the hospital

by | May 13, 2025

UPDATED 5/13/25 at 4:50 pm EST

Israeli security officials stated that Tel Aviv launched nine bunker busting missiles into and around the courtyard of southern Gaza’s European hospital near Khan Younis on Tuesday. At least 28 people have been killed and 70 others wounded including a journalist hit with shrapnel.

Nermeen Ziyad Abo Mostafa, a medical student, living in a house near the hospital posted on social media describing the terror during the attack. “My heart almost stopped, a continuous belt of fire… We started running from one corner to another, shouting at each other to gather in [one] place, I could not feel my ears from the force of the successive explosions, the fire of the bombs lit up everywhere even though it was not night,” she wrote.

As The Washington Post noted, “The hospital, one of Gaza’s largest, has frequently housed displaced Palestinians along with patients and staff over the course of the war. It was knocked out of service in July after the Israeli military ordered its evacuation, then reopened in August with the help of PalMed Europe, a Paris-based nonprofit of Palestinian doctors.”

Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper, reported that Shin Bet and the IDF released a joint statement asserting Tel Aviv’s strike was intended to hit a “command and control center” beneath the hospital. No evidence has been provided to support this claim, which is Tel Aviv’s standard pseudo justification offered up for attacking hospitals in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.

This closely follows another strike the same day on the third floor of the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis which killed journalist Hassan Aslih, who had been repeatedly targeted by Israeli forces. Several others were wounded. Aslih was a patient at Nasser, receiving treatment for wounds he sustained in a previous strike, when he was killed today along with another patient. According to Reuters, at the time of the strike, “[on the third floor] dozens of patients and injured were being treated.”

Social media footage shows large explosions taking place when the missiles made impact with the European Hospital, other videos show Palestinians attempting to rescue people buried under the sand after the bombing.

The Israeli army claims the attack was also an assassination attempt on the life of Mohammed Sinwar, the brother of former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar who was killed by the IDF in Rafah last October. There is, as yet, no verification on whether Mohammed Sinwar was killed in the strike or indeed was present at the hospital when it was attacked.

Drop Site reported on secondary strikes at the hospital which targeted civil defense workers. “Israel targeted Civil Defense teams in Khan Younis as they were recovering bodies from a home belonging to the Al-Afghani family, struck alongside Gaza European Hospital,” the outlet posted on X.

Additionally, a video was posted by British surgeon Tom Potokar saying the hospital was so damaged in the strike that bringing patients into the operating theatre for treatment is no longer possible.

Last October, nearly 100 American doctors and other health professionals, who served in the besieged Gaza Strip amidst Israel’s genocidal campaign, sent an open letter to the Joe Biden White House denying Israel’s claims about Hamas command centers in health facilities across the Strip.

“The 99 signatories to this letter spent a combined 254 weeks inside Gaza’s largest hospitals and clinics. We wish to be absolutely clear: not once did any of us see any type of Palestinian militant activity in any of Gaza’s hospitals or other healthcare facilities,” the letter reads.

Connor Freeman is the assistant editor and a writer at the Libertarian Institute, primarily covering foreign policy. He is a co-host on the Conflicts of Interest podcast. His writing has been featured in media outlets such as Antiwar.com, Counterpunch, and the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. He has also appeared on Liberty Weekly, Around the Empire, and Parallax Views. You can follow him on Twitter @FreemansMind96.

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