The IDF and Shin Bet said on Thursday that an overnight strike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis targeted Muhammad Abu Ismail, commander of Hamas's Khan Yunis Brigade, JNS reports. Other Hamas terrorists hiding in the hospital were also targeted, according to the joint statement.
Abu Ismail oversaw the brigade's terrorists and directed them to carry out attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians, the military said. He was also responsible for holding "numerous hostages captive throughout the war." The Jerusalem Post reports the IDF did not say which hostages he held. Ynetnews reports that Palestinian sources said one of those killed, Murad Abu Zarifa, was involved in the abduction of Adina Moshe from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7.
The IDF said Hamas had turned the hospital compound into a headquarters, using it to advance "dozens of terrorist plots" against Israeli forces and to rebuild the brigade, "which suffered significant damage throughout the war." In an earlier statement, the army said Hamas set up a command center inside the complex to store weapons, interrogate and torture Gazans and coordinate attacks on Israeli forces. The entire second floor had become Hamas's command center, with access restricted for regular patients, the IDF said, according to the Post.
The military released graphics of the hospital and published a conversation in which an IDF officer warned a senior official in Gaza's health system that the military would act inside hospitals if Hamas kept exploiting them. The Post reports the IDF said it took steps to limit harm to civilians, including a last warning not long before the strike. Ynetnews reports the strike was carried out by a drone directed by the Southern Command's fire center, using intelligence from the Shin Bet, which had monitored the hospital for an extended period.
The IDF said in its earlier statement that the results were still under review. Late Thursday, the Post reports, the army noted that at least two other senior Hamas officials were killed in the same strike, one in combat engineering and one in operations communications. It was unclear whether Abu Ismail survived. IDF sources told the Post the army is conservative about battle damage assessments until it receives all information.
What it means: a ceasefire has been in place in Gaza since Oct. 10, 2025, JNS reports. The Post reports Israel began acting more aggressively against Hamas a few months after the ceasefire, saying it could do so because Hamas refused to disarm, while refraining from a full invasion of Gaza. The strike shows the IDF and Shin Bet still reach the men who held Israel's hostages, even when they hide inside a hospital.
Ynetnews reports that Israeli security officials said the hospital works largely as a day-treatment facility, so fewer civilians were present in the evening and at night, when Hamas personnel were believed to be using parts of the complex, and that the strike also rested on intelligence about who was in the targeted areas. Doctors Without Borders, the aid group known as MSF, suspended its work at Nasser Hospital in February after its staff and patients reported seeing armed men, some of them masked, in parts of the compound, Ynetnews reports. MSF said the situation had worsened after the ceasefire, with staff reporting intimidation, arbitrary arrests of patients and suspected movement of weapons. It returned to the hospital in April.
As early as January 2024, Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories said Hamas was operating from Nasser and Al-Amal hospitals in Khan Yunis and had documented a rocket launch from Nasser Hospital, according to Ynetnews. The IDF has struck other Hamas brigade commanders in recent months, Ynetnews reports: Rafah Brigade commander Nail Abu Obeid was killed on September 16, and northern Gaza brigade commander Ezz al-Din Bikh about two weeks later.
