GAZA: As the head of surgery at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, Dr. Ayman Abu Obeid’s job is to treat people wounded by the war in Gaza. Shortly after midnight on Thursday, he became one of them.

“We work around the clock, of course, and at 12:30 last night we were hit by a direct strike on the doctors’ offices and the patients’ rooms,” he told Arab News.

His right foot was badly injured, one of the ligaments torn. His colleague, Dr. Mohammed Al-Adini, took a hit to the thigh that fractured his femur and will need surgery and external fixation of the bone. Another doctor paid the ultimate price.

“We lost a colleague, Dr. Rezik Abushira, a surgical specialist and one of our finest doctors,” Abu Obeid said.

The strike on a building at the hospital killed at least six people and wounded 20, Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defense, told Reuters. He said the strike hit the surgery department and caused extensive damage. Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 28 people had been wounded, the Associated Press reported.

Abu Obeid described the moment of the attack: “The offices were completely destroyed, and we and our colleagues were hit directly, along with a large number of patients, more than 50.

“Five or six martyrs yesterday, for no reason and with no justification for this continuous bombardment by the Israeli army.”

The Israeli military said it had targeted a Hamas commander and other militants after Hamas “established a presence within the hospital complex,” without providing evidence, AP reported. Reuters said it could not independently verify the military’s allegations, and quoted a spokesperson for Hamas as describing the strike as a “fully fledged war crime.”

Abu Obeid rejected the Israeli account: “There were no armed men or fighters inside the hospital building.”

Nasser hospital is one of the few medical facilities still functioning in Gaza, and it has been attacked by Israeli forces several times during the war. Abu Obeid said the strike on Thursday was just the latest example of the risks his staff live with daily and the costs of the conflict they are left to count.

“Every day, there are injuries. Every day, medical staff are killed. But there is absolutely no response to our suffering,” he said.

“We have called out again and again, to Arab and foreign parties alike. You would be heard if you called on the living, but there is no life in those you call.”

Foreign medical teams who were volunteering at the hospital, most of whom had never been in an active war zone, had been terrified by the attack, Abu Obeid said.

“Some will be afraid to come in the future, and some will insist on coming back to help the Palestinian people,” he added. “We ask God to be with our fellow doctors and that there be no more injuries.”

Only two days ago, he said, an Israeli airstrike hit a pregnant woman far from the yellow line that marks the boundary between the parts of Gaza held by Israeli forces and areas containing the Palestinian population.

“We ask God that everyone stands with us, and that the delegations do not abandon us and remain our support, always and forever,” he added.

Israel has stepped up its attacks on Gaza recently, accusing Hamas of trying to regroup and rearm. Hamas says it is committed to a year-old ceasefire agreement and accuses Israel of trying to undermine it. At least 1,600 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the truce came into effect on Oct. 10 last year, according to the health officials in the territory. Israel says four soldiers have been killed.

At the hospital, Al-Adini now awaits surgery on the thigh bone that was broken in the attack.

“Thank God, who saved us from this strike, and we pray it is never repeated,” he told Arab News.