Hamas Terrorists Commandeer Hospitals for Military Operations

"Hamas turned the hospital complex into a headquarters to advance dozens of terrorist attacks and restore the brigade's terror capabilities."

"Their] use of the hospital for military purposes constitutes a blatant violation of international law and endangers patients, medical personnel [and] civilians." 

Spokesperson, Israel Defense Forces  

An illustration of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, where the military says Hamas operated a command center and held hostages during the war. Credit: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.

 

Israel Defense Forces announced that six people were reportedly killed and up to twenty more injured when a hospital the IDF targeted in a Gaza strike that identified it as being used as a headquarters for Hamas had been bombed. Palestinian terrorists have a penchant for shielding themselves from military reprisals after attacking Israel, by melting into crowded civilian areas to avoid detection. They also use non-military sites like schools, mosques and hospitals from which to fire rockets into Israel, inviting responses geared to exact death among the civilian population.

 

In this operation a leader of the Hamas's Khan Yunis Brigade, Muhamed Abu Ismail, responsible for holding "numerous hostages captive" in that very hospital following the October 7 attack -- hostages they had  taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz -- were also subjected to torture there. Some of those hostages, now back in Israel to recover in time from the trauma they experienced, identified the hospital as the place they had been taken to where they suffered inhumane treatment. 

 

Two additional Hamas terrorists beside Abu Ismail were targets of the Thursday airstrike on the hospital. They were Muared Tawfiq Mahmoud Abu Zarifa, who served as a team leader in the brigade's combat and administrative support company as an engineer, as well as Khaled Osame Abu Anza who headed the communications section of the Operations Department in the Hamas intelligence headquarters. All three were 'high quality' targets. 

 

Operating out of a chamber in the hospital compound, that is where they were targeted for elimination. These were devoted terrorists using the medical facility to plan attacks and to restore the fragmented military infrastructure in southern Gaza. It was not immediately known whether the three targets had been successfully terminated. Photographs of the hospital immediately post-blast showed collapsed walls, and scattered debris. 

 

People walk at Nasser Hospital after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike overnight in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, November 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

 

Areas in the hospital were used for the storage of weapons. Other areas were where interrogations and torture were conducted. There were operational command-and-control rooms located in the hospital, ample evidence that the facilities of the hospital were being used as observation posts and shelters for the terrorists.

 

For their part,the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry's position was that Israel's targeting of the hospital represented a "flagrant violation of international laws and conventions", leading to civilians, including medical staff and patients having been killed in the strike. The response by Israel's foreign ministry was that the IDF had used "precision munitions", relying on aerial surveillance in an effort to "reduce civilian harm".

 

Doctors Without Borders had announced in January its decision to suspend non-critical medical operations at Nasser Hospital as a result of justifiable safety concerns. The medical group called on "armed groups" and Israeli forces to "respect medical facilities".

 

Medical staff inspect damage to Nasser Hospital after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike overnight in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, November 12, 2026. (AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)

 

"[Personnel and patients had observed] armed men, some masked, in different areas of the large compound of the hospital."

"[MSF teams reported] a pattern of unacceptable acts, including the presence of armed men, intimidation, arbitrary arrests of patients [and the] suspicion of movement of weapons."

"[Hospitals] must remain neutral, civilian spaces, free from military presence or activity, to ensure the safe and impartial delivery of medical care." 

Doctors Without Borders