Hamas: Nasser Hospital 'completely out of service' amid IDF operation

Fighting, fuel shortages, and Israeli raids put the Gaza Strip's second-largest hospital completely out of service on Sunday, local and UN health officials said, as Israel battled Hamas terrorists in the Palestinian enclave.

The Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis still sheltered patients suffering from war wounds and Gaza's worsening health crisis, but there was no power and not enough staff to treat them all, the Hamas health officials said.

"It's gone completely out of service," the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra told Reuters.

"There are only four medical staffers currently caring for patients inside the facility," he said.

Gaza's hospitals have been a focal point of the four-month-old war between Israel and Hamas, which controls the Strip.

Most have been put out of action by fighting and lack of fuel, leaving a population of 2.3 million without proper healthcare, while tens of thousands have been wounded by airstrikes, and many others suffer from chronic illness and, increasingly, starvation, according to the Hamas health officials.

Using hospitals to hide weapons and hostages 

The IDF has conducted operations in medical facilities, finding Hamas weapons and video footage of hostages in hospitals. Hamas denies this. The international community says hospitals, which are protected under international law, must be protected.

The World Health Organization (WHO) urged Israel to grant its staff access to the hospital, where it said a week-long siege and raids by Israeli forces searching for Hamas terrorists had stopped them from helping patients.

"Both yesterday and the day before, the @WHO team was not permitted to enter the hospital to assess the conditions of the patients and critical medical needs, despite reaching the hospital compound to deliver fuel," WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on social media platform X.

The IDF said its special forces were operating in and around Nasser Hospital and had killed dozens of Hamas terrorists and seized a large number of weapons in fighting across Gaza over the past day.

"Dozens of terrorists were eliminated, and large quantities of weapons were seized," it said in a statement.

The military said this week it was hunting for terrorists in Nasser and had arrested at least 100 suspects on the premises, killed gunmen near the hospital, and found weapons inside it.

Hamas has denied allegations that its fighters use medical facilities for cover.

Israel's air and ground offensive has affected much of Gaza and forced nearly all of its inhabitants from their homes. The Hamas-run health authorities say 28,985 people, mostly civilians, have been killed.

The war began when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seizing 253 hostages.