Israeli strike on Gaza hospital kills six, including surgeon, medics say

An Israeli airstrike has killed at least six people at a hospital in the Gaza Strip. There's supposed to be a ceasefire in Gaza. It was declared in October last year, but since then, over 1,600 Palestinians have been killed in continued Israeli military action. This latest strike on the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis is justified by the Israelis as targeting terrorists. Hamas says it isn't using the hospital as a base. Here's Eliza Herbert. Doctors inside the NASA hospital described it as like an earthquake. The lights went out and windows shattered as two Israeli missiles pierced the building in Khan Yunis. One surgeon said he was in the operating theatre at the time and that some of his patients did not make it. It was horrific. A central hospital with patients resting in their beds, suddenly struck. The scale of the destruction, the rubble, the charred remains and the screams, it was beyond description. Good look out. Some patients were killed, while the families of others scrambled to carry them to a different department. The Nasser Medical Complex is one of the largest hospitals in the Gaza Strip, serving roughly half a million people. According to the hospital's director, a central building was hit, but one of the two missiles did not explode. He insisted they received no prior warning from Israel and said one of the hospital's surgeons was killed in the attack. Dr Rizk Abu Shaira was 52 years old and was known for his kindness, courage and generosity. He never hesitated to serve patients at Nasser Medical Complex. Thanks. On Thursday, funeral prayers were held for the victims, with relatives trying to understand how their loved ones went to receive care and were instead killed. Hospitals and medical staff are protected under international law, but they have repeatedly been targeted in the Gaza Strip. Israel said it had killed a Hamas brigade commander who was hiding on site and accused the militants of turning the complex into their headquarters. Hamas rejected the claims and called it a heinous crime attacking civilians. We can welcome to our program someone who's experienced exactly what has just happened. Dr. Gohar Rabo joins us from Gaza. He's a surgeon working at the Nasser Hospital. Dr. Rabo, thank you for being with us. And frankly, we're happy to see you alive, sir, because clearly what you've been through is a near-death experience. Tell us about the damage that's been done to your workplace by this airstrike. Just firstly to highlight, I'm sitting in a stairwell on level four of Nasser Hospital. It's really intense outside. There's lots of drones and gunfire in the distance, but I would have rather been just standing on the balcony. So it is quite a tense situation. So I also have to say, 8 o'clock yesterday, 8 p.m., I was operating with one of the surgeons who has been killed with a missile strike. That's Dr. Rizk Abu Shaira. And we were together operating about 8 p.m. And then the missile strike was roughly about half past midnight. All right. Just the balcony behind me, there was smoke. It was fairly obvious that the hospital had been hit. A lot of destruction. Myself and some other colleagues, we then went to ITU. It was thick smoke. We held back before going to the theater complex, which is just 30 seconds away from where I'm sitting now. But we held back because there can always be a double tap strike, that's happened in the past. And then once we got into the theatre complex, there are six theatres, the recovery is completely destroyed, rubble everywhere, smoke everywhere, acrid smoke. You can see the damage to the roof, there's a missile strike which has gone straight down to the second floor and that's where the majority of the destruction's taken place. So there's been six people who've died, 28 injured. And obviously one of the surgeons was killed, was Dr. Rizk. We're sorry for your loss, sir. Clearly losing a colleague in any circumstances is difficult, but what you're going through seems completely inhuman. International law says that people like yourself in a hospital are protected, but the Israelis are saying that they are attacking Hamas, who are using the hospital as a base. So I've got to ask you, because you are there, do you see any evidence of Hamas being at Nasser Hospital? So there's been no evidence from my part. I was here last year in May, June 2025. We had mass casualties with those so-called food distribution centres of famine, starvation, and I was walking around the hospital like I am doing now, going to teaching and so forth, endoscopy. I can walk freely and I don't come across any evidence whatsoever. I don't come across anyone in military fatigues, anyone with arms and so forth. What I do come across is there's, behind me, there's complete pitch black, a population who are nutritionally deplete, living in overcrowding housing, lack of water, lack of soap. Those are the type of things that we see. And within the hospital, there is such a shortage of everything. Restrictions, there's restrictions, things coming in. So, yeah, on your point, I've not seen any evidence whatsoever. Thank you for answering that question so frankly. It must have been very difficult to do your job before this airstrike. The circumstances now, I imagine, make it virtually impossible. But you will continue, won't you? Because that's what you do. Are you ready? Yeah, absolutely. And more than me, we just look to the Gaza doctors, nurses, surgeons, they are super resilient. They carry on. They are absolutely determined and very inspiring to be around such colleagues. The difficulties we have right now in the infrastructure, so the six theatres at Nasser, they have been completely out of use today, and the recovery is rubble. So then there is a MSF complex. Obviously, as you may know, MSF are banned along with 37 other organisations for I don't know why. So, why? But there's a couple of theatres, not adequately stocked, but those can be used. Who knows what the volume will be coming in and and then there'll be difficulties. The second floor which was really destroyed, which I think you're showing right now in your images, contains the female surgical ward. It has the accommodation room for the doctors who are on call and also there's another ward, the male surgical ward, so that's all in rubble. Really destroyed. There's water flowing around and colleagues have been using shovels and so forth, trying to get rid of that material. Now, those patients are going outside to tents. Do they get transferred to field hospitals? That's the role of the coordinators who have been working on throughout the day. Israel has taken... Bans out on a number of organizations, including Médecins Sans Frontières, saying that basically it is infringing its remit there and involved in other activities other than what it is said to be there to do. And obviously, that is a question of interpretation. And Dr. Rabour, we've got no reason to disbelieve you. And we take you strictly at your word, because what you're seeing is what you are experiencing. And clearly, we have We're grateful for you to take the time to speak to us here when you've got many people to attend to. So doing your job must be near impossible, but you will continue to try. You've got other doctors around you who are also trying to construct things, it seems, out of nothing. Are you getting the supplies through? Because, you know, in terms of all this chaos going on, one wonders how you manage to actually keep all the things that you need in one place to even do the most basic medical procedure. Oh, you're absolutely spot on. So firstly, and touching on, so right now where I'm sitting, this is the EMT, the Emergency Medical Team Office. We have a number of NGOs. They are from UK, they are Canadian, there is someone from Italy and Germany background. So there's a range of NGOs, international, we all. Everything I've said so far, we would all be in agreement. The equipment within theatre, there is a lack of suture material, the drains, the nutrition, which leads to its own issues. Please. Coming in with material is incredibly difficult. There are huge restrictions. So when, for instance, you came in through the EMT route, we are only allowed a certain number of tablets just for yourself. This is not for any other patient. So I just brought a handful of paracetamol, nothing else, because you have the potential of being denied entry through the King Hussein Bridge, Allenby, getting to Kerem Shalom route. And then if you send supplies, for example, I'm a colorectal surgeon, stomas, they could be sitting at the border for months, orthopedic equipment at the border for months. So there's a huge lag. And a lack of facilities, equipment, that's really required. I don't understand why things are not let in. The tragedy of this war just gets deeper and deeper. Dr. Ghassan Rabo, joining us from Gaza, from the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis. Thank you for your time. Please stay safe. And I hope you're able to care for the people who desperately need your attention. Thank you for sparing time to speak to us. I just reinforce to everybody at home, you're welcome, sir. Just to reinforce to everybody at home, as a journalist, I can't get into Gaza. I'm not allowed to go in. So we're getting a first-hand report from Dr. Rabo to give us his sense of how things are. I would like one day, sir, to join you there and hear your story firsthand. Let's hope that that can happen soon. Thank you very much indeed, Dr. Ghassan Rabo. Join us there from the Nasser Hospital. Thank you, sir. Stay safe. Thank you.