An Israeli airstrike hit a building at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, early on Thursday, killing at least five people — including a surgeon — and wounding 20 others, a spokesman for Gaza's civil defence service told Reuters. Mahmoud Basal, the spokesman, said the strike hit the hospital's surgery department and caused extensive damage. Medics identified the dead surgeon as Rezik Abushira. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. The strike, its casualty figures and its damage account all rest on Gaza's civil defence and hospital officials as reported by the two wires — there has been no independent confirmation of the strike or count, and the report is published here with that attribution and that limitation stated. It landed inside the hospital complex in the middle of a ceasefire that has now run for thirteen months without stopping the killing: at least 1,600 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire agreement took effect, according to Gaza's health officials, while Israel says four of its soldiers have been killed in the same period, Reuters reported.
What was hit inside the hospital?
The surgery department, on Basal's account to Reuters: he said the airstrike hit the surgery department at Nasser Hospital, causing extensive damage. The Anadolu Agency report carried the building-level detail from the same officials: the strike hit the second floor of the Al-Yasin building inside the complex in western Khan Younis, and the hospital's director said the attack caused extensive damage to the intensive care and surgical wards. A hospital's surgery and intensive care wards are where its most critically ill patients are treated; damage there strikes at the facility's ability to treat the wounded of the next attack, including this one's own 20 wounded. Israel had made no claim about this strike at the time of publication, because it had not commented on it at all.
How do the reported tolls fit together?
They rose through the night, and they are not yet settled. The first reports, carried by Anadolu Agency, put the toll at four killed, citing Basal. Reuters' updated report put it at at least five killed, including the surgeon, and 20 wounded, citing the same civil defence spokesman. Both figures come from the same official source at different points in the rescue work, and neither is an independent count — this article leads with the later, higher Reuters figure and records the earlier one rather than merging them. The wider counts differ the same way: Reuters puts the number of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire at at least 1,600, citing the territory's health officials, while the Anadolu report carries the health authorities' updated figure of 1,622 killed and 5,878 injured since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, 2025. Palestinian authorities say more than 74,000 people have been killed in Israel's assault on Gaza since October 2023, Reuters reported; the Anadolu report carries the health authorities' figure of more than 74,600 killed and nearly 176,000 wounded. Israel launched its offensive after Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, by Israeli tallies.
What happened in Gaza the day before?
Five Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza City and the Bureij refugee camp on Wednesday, and a sixth died of wounds sustained in an Israeli strike on Tuesday, the Anadolu report said. Israel, which has stepped up its attacks on the enclave, says Hamas is trying to regroup and refill its arsenal, Reuters reported. Hamas says it is committed to the year-old ceasefire agreement and accuses Israel of trying to undermine it. That is the pattern this strike extends — a ceasefire in force on paper since October 2025, under which the territory's hospitals, camps and cities continue to be struck and the toll kept by Gaza's health authorities continues to climb past 1,600. What is new this time is the target the officials describe: not a camp, a street or an apartment block, but the surgery department of a hospital, and a surgeon among the dead.
Sources: Reuters (12 November 2026, read in full via the rostered Reuters carrier wixx.com; published 23:26 UTC on 11 November, updated 23:56 UTC); Anadolu Agency report (12 November 2026, read in full via byteseu.com). The strike itself, its casualty figures, the surgeon's identification and the damage account all come from Gaza's civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal and hospital officials as reported by the two wires — the Israeli military had given no comment when this article was published, and there was no independent confirmation of the strike or an independent count; the figures are published as attributed claims under this site's two-source rule, with the two wires' differing totals (four killed in the first reports, at least five in Reuters' update; at least 1,600 and 1,622 killed since the ceasefire) carried side by side rather than merged. No market snapshot box is included: no source opened this run attributed any market move to this strike.
