Israel bombed the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, early Thursday morning, killing at least six people, including a prominent surgeon and a 13-year-old boy, a clear war crime under the Geneva Convention.
The Israeli strike hit the hospital’s surgery ward, with witnesses describing two missiles crashing into the building and knocking the surgery department out of operation. At least 20 people were also wounded in the attack. “All of a sudden, the world turned upside down. It went dark all at once,” Ayman Abu Obeid, a doctor who was injured in the attack, told Reuters.
The surgeon who was killed, Rizk Abu Shaaira, was recently featured in the film “American Doctor,” which followed three US doctors as they volunteered in Gaza and worked alongside Palestinian medical professionals.
“My colleague and friend Dr. Rizk Abu Shaaira was killed yesterday at work when Israel, backed by the US as always, bombed the surgical recovery room at Nasser Medical Complex,” Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, an American trauma surgeon who was in the film, wrote on X.
Sidhwa said that Shaaira “was one of those surgeons we describe as super enthusiastic” who “would jump at the opportunity to change a dressing, clean a wound, or pull a drain.”
“Dr. Rizk’s shocking murder is yet another reminder of why we must get control of our country. Our government has no right to force us to subsidize the mass murder of doctors and children, not in Palestine and not anywhere,” Sidhwa added.
The Israeli military claimed the attack targeted Muhammad Abu Ismail, and described him as “the commander of Hamas’ Khan Younis Brigade.” The IDF accused Hamas militants of turning the hospital into a “headquarters,” allegations that Hamas strongly denied in a statement where it called the attack a “full-fledged war crime and terrorist behavior.”
Ismail’s name was also not on the list of the six people who were killed, according to a list of the victims circulating among Gaza medical workers that was reported by Drop Site News. The 13-year-old boy who was killed was identified as Jihad Naeem Abu Tilekh, who had undergone surgery days earlier.
Even if Israel’s claims about Hamas operating at the hospital are true, Article 19 of the Fourth Geneva Convention outlines strict limits under which a hospital loses its civilian protection status.
“The protection to which civilian hospitals are entitled shall not cease unless they are used to commit, outside their humanitarian duties, acts harmful to the enemy. Protection may, however, cease only after due warning has been given, naming, in all appropriate cases, a reasonable time limit, and after such warning has remained unheeded,” Article 19 states.
The hospital and witnesses strongly deny Israel’s claim that a warning was given before the strike, and Abu Obeid and other medical staff were sleeping when the missiles hit the hospital. Drop Site also noted that there’s been no “ongoing fighting” since, as Hamas hasn’t fired a single rocket since the signing of the ceasefire deal, despite Israel’s constant violations of the agreement, which have killed more than 1,600 Palestinians.
“Under the Geneva Conventions, a hospital loses protection only if used for ‘acts harmful to the enemy.’ Even then, the expected harm to patients and staff cannot be excessive compared to the military gain, and a warning does nothing to meet that test when intensive care patients cannot be moved. Hamas has fired no rockets since agreeing to a ceasefire. There is no ongoing fighting,” Drop Site wrote on X.
President Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace,” which is meant to oversee the ceasefire deal, released a statement on the strike that backed the Israeli narrative and condemned Hamas.
Israeli forces appear to have used US-made bombs in the attack. CNN reported that footage from inside Nasser Hospital showed two bombs, including one that failed to explode. A label on the unexploded munition identified it as a US-made GBU-39/B, a 250-pound bomb that the US has supplied to Israel.
The US continues to back Israel’s daily attacks despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejecting a US-backed proposal that would involve Hamas giving up its weapons. Israeli attacks pounded other parts of Gaza on Thursday, killing four more Palestinians, bringing the day’s death toll to at least 10.
