Gaza's Health Ministry says Israeli jets strike largest hospital in south

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip

Israel’s military struck the largest hospital in southern Gaza on Sunday night, killing one person, wounding others and causing a large fire, the territory's Health Ministry said.

The strike hit the surgical building of Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Younis, the ministry said, days after the facility was overwhelmed with dead and wounded when Israel resumed the war in Gaza last week with a surprise wave of airstrikes.

Israel's military confirmed the hospital strike which it said was conducted with "precise munitions" following extensive intelligence-gathering, saying it hit a Hamas militant operating there. Israel blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it operates in densely populated areas.

After Israel confirmed the air strike targeted "a key terrorist," a source in the Islamist movement also said it killed a member of Hamas's political bureau as he underwent treatment in hospital.

"The Israeli army assassinated Hamas political bureau member Ismail Barhoum," the Hamas source said, requesting anonymity to speak more freely.

"Warplanes bombed the operating room at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, where Barhoum was receiving treatment after sustaining critical injuries in an air strike targeting his home in Khan Yunis at dawn last Tuesday."

AFP photos showed the building of about four-storeys largely undamaged except for fire blazing in one section off a stairwell.

Barhoum is the fourth member of Hamas's political bureau killed since last Tuesday when Israel resumed air strikes in the territory after an impasse over continuing a ceasefire.

Like other medical facilities around Gaza, the hospital has been damaged by Israeli raids and strikes throughout the war.

More than 50,000 Palestinians have now been killed in the war between Israel and Hamas, the Health Ministry said earlier Sunday. Israeli airstrikes killed at least 26 Palestinians overnight.

The military claimed to have “eliminated” dozens of militants since Israel ended a ceasefire last week with a surprise wave of strikes that killed hundreds of people on one of the deadliest days in the 17-month war.