By Pesach Benson • August 20, 2026
Jerusalem, 20 August, 2026 (TPS-IL) — Israeli authorities said Thursday that Hamas is using Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis to conduct security interrogations and torture as the terrorist organization seeks to maintain control over Gaza’s population.
According to information released by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), Hamas’s internal security and military intelligence services are conducting interrogations on the second floor of the hospital’s outpatient clinic.
A delegation headed by the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, visits the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on Jan. 14, 2025. Photo by Majdi Fathi/TPS-IL
The statement said Hamas is exploiting the hospital “as a center of power regardless of its medical function, for the purpose of interrogations, torture, and extortion.”
The agencies said Nasser Hospital remains “a central military facility for the Hamas terrorist organization in the southern Gaza Strip,” with Hamas operatives, including masked members, maintaining a presence in various parts of the complex.
The agencies said Hamas’s presence exposes patients and medical staff to its activities, creating fear and interfering with the hospital’s civilian functions.
According to the statement, another building currently used for interrogations had previously housed hospital offices, a cafeteria and later a house of prayer.
The Israeli agencies have previously cited Hamas military activity at the hospital compound. In May 2025, Israel struck terrorists in a command and control center located inside the hospital compound. Ismail Barhoum, a member of the Hamas politburo and the terror group’s financial chief, was killed in a separate strike on the compound that year.
Eighty-five percent of Gaza’s hospitals have been used by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad for terror according to the Israel Defense Forces.
As reported by The Press Service of Israel in 2023, Hamas made extensive use of the Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical center. Hamas launched rockets from its compound, hid hostages inside the hospital, tortured collaborators, and dug tunnel shafts.
Other Palestinians told Israeli interrogators Hamas deeply embedded itself in the Palestinian Red Crescent Society to use hospitals and clinics as a base for attacks.
At least 1,180 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7.
