International condemnation mounted Friday after an Israeli airstrike killed at least six Palestinians, including a surgeon and a teenage boy, at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, with Türkiye and Spain denouncing the attack and the head of the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency questioning whether the territory's fragile cease-fire could still be considered meaningful.
The overnight strike on the medical complex in Khan Younis wounded dozens of others and severely damaged its surgical and intensive care departments, further disrupting medical services at one of Gaza's main hospitals.
Gaza's Civil Defense initially reported six deaths and more than 20 injuries, while the Gaza Health Ministry said those killed included medical personnel, patients and their companions. The United Nations later reported six people killed and 27 injured, while international medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said 52 people had been wounded.
Among the dead was Rezik Abushira, a surgeon featured in the 2026 documentary "American Doctor," which followed three visiting U.S. physicians providing medical care to Palestinians in Gaza. A 13-year-old boy was also among those killed, according to Gaza's Education Ministry.
The United Nations expressed deep alarm over the attack, warning that continued violence and intensified Israeli military operations were worsening the humanitarian crisis and threatening the increasingly fragile cease-fire.
U.N. Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq said the organization's interim special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Ramiz Alakbarov, had called for rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access, including the delivery of durable shelter materials and winter supplies as colder months approach.
Alakbarov warned that the latest military operations were exacerbating the immense suffering of Gaza's population and jeopardizing the cease-fire.
MSF said it was "utterly appalled and outraged" that patients and medical personnel had once again been killed and injured inside a hospital.
"It is unconscionable that patients and medical staff are once again being killed and injured inside a hospital, a place where lives should be saved, not taken," the organization said.
MSF said Nasser Hospital had endured at least six airstrikes, repeated ground incursions, shelling and gunfire since October 2023, stressing that medical facilities must remain protected spaces where patients can receive treatment and health workers can perform their duties without fearing for their lives.
"In no conceivable circumstances can attacks on functioning hospitals in Gaza be treated as normal or acceptable," it said.
The condemnation extended beyond humanitarian organizations, with Türkiye and Spain joining calls for accountability over the attack.
Türkiye's Foreign Ministry on Friday strongly condemned the Israeli strike, describing it as a grave violation of international law, particularly international humanitarian law.
Ankara accused Israel of undermining peace efforts by continuing military operations despite the cease-fire and called on the international community to take necessary steps to protect Palestinians and establish peace and stability.
Spain also condemned the bombing in the strongest terms, describing it as another serious violation of international humanitarian law and the cease-fire agreement.
Madrid stressed that hospitals and medical personnel must be protected under international law and called for urgent humanitarian assistance to reach Gaza's population.
Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), questioned whether the cease-fire could still be considered meaningful amid continued Israeli attacks on Gaza's health facilities.
"Nasser hospital: the latest in the daily deadly military destruction. Since October last year, hundreds of health facilities in Gaza have come under attack. How can this still be called a cease-fire?" Lazzarini wrote on X.
He called for a genuine cease-fire, describing one as "needed and overdue."
The international reaction came as U.S. President Donald Trump's Board of Peace called for the immediate implementation of his Gaza peace plan, arguing that the latest deaths demonstrated the urgency of moving forward.
In a statement posted on X, the board said the "tragic loss of life" highlighted the need for all parties to honor their commitments under the agreement.
"Otherwise, we will continue to see tragedies in which Hamas alleges deliberate Israeli attacks on hospitals, Israel maintains that Hamas exploits these facilities for its operations, and innocent Gazans ultimately pay the price," it said.
The board condemned Hamas' alleged use of hospitals and other civilian infrastructure for military purposes but stopped short of directly condemning Israel's airstrike or providing evidence that the group had used Nasser Hospital for military operations.
It said it had established a strategic framework intended to ensure Palestinians could live safely and access essential medical care in secure, demilitarized facilities, urging all parties to give it the authority and operational freedom needed to implement the plan without obstruction.
Israel's military said the strike targeted Muhammad Abu Ismail, whom it identified as the commander of Hamas' Khan Younis Brigade, alleging that he and other members were operating from inside the hospital compound.
The military accused Hamas of turning the facility into a headquarters and using it to plan attacks. Hamas rejected the allegation that it had used the hospital as a military base.
The Israeli military did not provide publicly available evidence supporting its claim that the hospital was being used for military operations.
Hospital officials said the complex had been struck at least seven times since the beginning of the war, including a double-tap attack in August 2025 that killed at least 20 people, among them journalists and medical workers.
Under international humanitarian law, hospitals and medical personnel are entitled to special protection. Medical facilities can lose that protection under specific circumstances if used for military purposes, but such claims must meet strict legal conditions.
The hospital strike was followed by further deadly incidents across Gaza on Thursday.
Two Palestinians were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli airstrike targeting a vehicle in Gaza City, while another person was killed by Israeli gunfire in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, according to medics.
Israel's military said the vehicle strike targeted a Hamas member but did not comment on the other incident, bringing Thursday's reported Palestinian death toll to at least nine.
The October 2025 cease-fire halted major strikes but has not stopped Israeli attacks or secured Hamas' disarmament.
Palestinian health authorities say at least 1,622 Palestinians have been killed and 5,878 wounded in Israeli violations since the agreement took effect.
The wider genocide began on Oct. 7, 2023, following Hamas' incursion into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and abducting 251 others to Gaza.
Israel's subsequent military campaign has killed more than 74,600 Palestinians and wounded nearly 176,000, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, while destroying much of the territory's infrastructure.
