Palestinians recall aftermath of deadly Israeli strike on Gaza hospital
Palestinians at the scenes of a deadly Israeli attack on the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, recall the horrifying moment when a missile struck the surgery department, killing five people.
The attack wounded several patients and medical staff and destroyed a large portion of the hospital, forcing the evacuation of an entire department, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Um Hassan Zorob, a medical staff member at the hospital, told Middle East Eye that she was in an adjacent building when the attack occurred.
"We were just going about our day when the bomb hit the second floor," she said, crying.
"All of them were just patients, lying on the floor, just patients."
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Human rights groups have repeatedly condemned Israel's attacks on hospitals and medical staff as a breach of international humanitarian law.
Last Thursday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that Israeli forces committed war crimes against sick patients while occupying hospitals in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military has justified its assaults on Gaza's medical facilities with claims that they are used by Palestinian armed groups as "military command centres", but has failed to provide any verifiable evidence to back the allegations.
Bill Van Esveld, HRW's associate children’s rights director, said: “The Israeli military’s occupation of Gaza’s hospitals has transformed sites for healing and recovery into centers of death and mistreatment.”
Israeli warplanes have bombed the emergency unit of Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, killing at least five Palestinians and wounding many others.
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) March 24, 2025
The attack on one of Gaza’s largest hospitals comes as medical facilities struggle to cope with the relentless bombardment by… pic.twitter.com/4DfhELWjW4
Describing the chaos following the strike, Zorob said: "We saw some people martyred, others wounded. We had no idea where to go; we were just running around, lost and unsure of what to do."
"Why did they strike it? What’s in the hospital besides women, men, and children, torn apart by the brutal strike they’ve unleashed on us? We're exhausted. We can't take this anymore."
'Where is the humanity'
Another man receiving treatment at Nasser compared the attack to an earthquake.
"One moment, it felt like an earthquake - everything collapsed on my head. I don’t even know how I managed to run," he says, lying in a hospital bed, his body marked by injuries.
In the aftermath, both medical staff and patients were seen lying on stretchers and beds, receiving treatment, while parts of the hospital lay in ruins.
Outside the hospital, bodies were lined up in the courtyards, with mourners gathering to pray over them.
One mourner, Ahmed Jaber Abu Harb, told MEE that they were preparing to bury the victims.
"The war has resumed in a more horrifying manner than before. Israel does not distinguish between the old and young. They don’t distinguish between a small, breastfeeding child torn to shreds, a woman ripped apart, or the disabled..."
"We must reflect today, as we endure these massacres day and night, and ask the world: where is humanity? Where are the international humanitarian laws? Where are human rights? All of this has been lost in the wind."
Abu Harb added that during the holy month of Ramadan, they have mourned hundreds of people, including 430 Palestinians killed in one day last Tuesday.
"Until when will we continue to live through and endure this suffering?"
'Place of death'
Among those killed on Sunday was Ismail Barhoum, a senior Hamas political figure, who had been receiving treatment at the hospital for injuries sustained in an earlier Israeli attack.
Hamas denounced the attack as a “cowardly Zionist assassination” and accused Israel of deliberately targeting Palestinian leaders, civilians, and Gaza’s already devastated healthcare system.
According to HRW, medical facilities may be subject to attack if "they are used to commit acts harmful to the enemy", it said that "the presence of wounded or sick combatants and their small arms does not make hospitals subject to attack".
"While Israeli forces exercised effective control over hospitals, they were also obligated under international human rights law to respect, protect, and fulfil the right to the highest attainable standard of health," it added.
Israeli air strikes have repeatedly hit hospitals across Gaza, leaving many unable to function. Rights groups and legal experts have condemned these attacks as flagrant violations of international law.
This is not the first time Israel has attacked Nasser Hospital.
From February through April 2024, Israeli forces besieged the medical complex, turning it into a site of mass killing.
In early February, medical staff reported that Israeli snipers were shooting at them inside the hospital, while dozens of civilians were killed just outside.
United Nations officials overseeing evacuations at the time described Nasser Hospital as a “place of death.” When Israeli forces withdrew in April, Palestinian rescue workers uncovered a mass grave containing more than 300 bodies. A civil defence official said that some of the corpses bore signs of torture.
Among those killed during the siege were women, children, and medical workers - Palestinians who sought shelter in a hospital only to be met with Israeli bombs and bullets.
On Sunday alone, Israeli air strikes across Gaza killed at least 46 people, with most of the deaths reported in Khan Younis and Rafah.
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