The US-led Board of Peace has called on Israel and Hamas to uphold their commitments under the Gaza ceasefire plan and protect civilians, after an Israeli strike on Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza killed six people, including a surgeon and a 13-year-old boy.

In a statement on Thursday, the board, which oversees the ceasefire in Gaza, also called on all parties to “cede the necessary authority and operational space” to the board so it can carry out its plan to provide medical care in secure, demilitarised facilities, CNN reported.

The hospital strike

The strike hit Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis shortly after midnight on Thursday, 12 November, striking the complex’s surgery unit, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry and the territory’s Civil Defence agency. The blast tore through part of the hospital, leaving charred debris scattered across the destroyed unit.

Among the dead was Dr Rizk Abu Shaira, a 52-year-old general surgeon who was working at the hospital when the strike hit, and a 13-year-old boy who had been due to have surgery. Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 28 people were wounded; CNN reported the number injured as 40, including two doctors in critical condition.

Footage from inside the hospital showed two bombs, one of which failed to explode. A label on the bomb identified it as a US-manufactured GBU-39/B, a 250-pound bomb that has been supplied to Israel, CNN reported.

The Israeli military said it had targeted Muhammad Abu Ismail, commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, and other militants it said were hiding inside the hospital. The Associated Press reported that the commander was not among the dead. The hospital’s director, Ahmed al-Farra, said no warning came before the strike, while the Israeli army said it had warned on several occasions that military activity at the hospital must stop.

Surgeries and other services were suspended because of damage to the building, al-Farra said, adding that nearby medical facilities could not provide the specialised surgery Nasser Hospital had been offering. “No one’s safe here,” he said.

Board’s criticism and Hamas response

Earlier in the week, the board had also criticised Israel over what it called an “insufficient” response to flooding in Gaza, after seasonal rains swamped tens of thousands of tents across the coastal enclave, where nearly two million Palestinians are displaced, according to the United Nations.

The board said the urgent entry and distribution of shelter, sanitation, drainage and other winterisation supplies was critical to protecting civilians, and called on Israel to allow more temporary shelters, waste management and other supplies. Israel said more than 91,000 tents had entered Gaza before winter, but refused to allow in the heavy equipment needed for large-scale cleanup and rubble removal.

Hamas rejected the board’s statement on the hospital strike, saying it had adopted Israel’s narrative and obscured what the movement called the systematic targeting of civilians and medical infrastructure. Hamas said the board should have condemned the strike, demanded an independent international investigation and held those responsible to account.

A ceasefire under strain

The strike came more than a year after a US-brokered ceasefire took effect in October 2025. Gaza’s health authorities say Israeli strikes and gunfire have killed 1,622 people since the truce began, while five Israeli soldiers have also been killed in that period, according to the Associated Press. The overall death toll in Gaza since October 2023 stands at more than 74,600, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, whose figures are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.

Israel controls at least 60 per cent of the enclave, and the World Health Organization has said Gaza’s health facilities should never be militarised or attacked. The Board of Peace said similar attacks were inevitable unless both Israel and Hamas honoured commitments made under the stalled ceasefire plan. Israel says reconstruction cannot begin until Hamas fully disarms; Hamas says it will lay down its weapons only if Israel stops launching strikes and withdraws.

Sources: CNN and Associated Press