IDF: Hamas held dozens of hostages inside Gaza's Nasser Hospital and ran a headquarters from its second floor

Hamas held dozens of hostages at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza, during the war, including women, children, elderly people and foreign nationals, and used the hospital as a heavily guarded military headquarters, the Israel Defense Forces said Friday, JNS reports.

Many of the hostages held there were abducted from Kibbutz Nahal Oz on Oct. 7, 2023, the military said.

The disclosure came a day after the IDF and the Shin Bet announced an airstrike on the hospital compound targeting Muhammad Abu Ismail, a senior commander of Hamas's Khan Yunis Brigade. The IDF said Abu Ismail was responsible for holding numerous hostages during the war, including Edan Alexander, Nimrod Cohen, Staff Sgt. Oz Daniel, Col. Asaf Hamami, Avera Mengistu, Capt. Omer Neutra and Matan Zangauker.

According to the military, the hospital's second floor served as a Hamas headquarters where civilians were barred and security was tightly controlled. Senior commanders used it to direct operations against Israeli forces, advance dozens of attack plans and rebuild the brigade. Abu Ismail took a central role in running the brigade after its commander, Muhammad Yazouri, was killed on Sept. 10, the IDF said.

Two other Hamas operatives were targeted with him: Muared Tawfiq Mahmoud Abu Zarifa, a team leader in the brigade's engineering department, and Khaled Osama Abu Anza, who headed communications in the operations department of Hamas's intelligence headquarters. The IDF has not confirmed whether they were killed.

The IDF said it had repeatedly warned Hamas to stop operating from Nasser Hospital, and that the strike was aimed at the room the commanders were using, with precision munitions and steps to limit harm to civilians. Palestinian reports said six people were killed, including a surgeon; the IDF did not confirm those figures.