At least 12 people were killed in overnight Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run civil defense agency said Sunday, with media reports saying that the dead included a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander.
There was no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces, but a military official said the strikes came after a ceasefire violation by terror operatives. Late Saturday night, the IDF said five gunmen were killed after they approached troops on the Israeli side of the Yellow Line, in what the army said was a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire.
In past incidents of attacks on troops in Gaza during the ceasefire that has been in place since October, the IDF has launched waves of strikes against Hamas and allied terror groups.
According to Palestinian media reports, an Israeli airstrike on western Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa killed a senior commander in the al-Quds Brigades, Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s wing, and wounded several other people.
Media outlets, including the PIJ-affiliated Palestine Today channel, identified the commander as Sami al-Dahdouh, 56.
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Dahdouh’s three brothers, including former Quds Brigades commander Khaled Dahdouh, were reportedly assassinated by Israel in separate attacks in Gaza some two decades ago. Other than Dahdouh, the identities of people reported killed were not immediately published in major Palestinian outlets.
صورة | القيادي في سرايا القدس الشهيد سامي الدحدوح الذي اغتاله الاحتلال بقصف استهدفه في مدينة غزة. pic.twitter.com/34ognHUFKi
— فلسطين أون لايـن (@F24online) February 15, 2026
The Gaza civil defense agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas authorities, said one strike hit a tent of displaced people in northern Gaza and another targeted an area in the south.
Five people were killed and several injured when a separate airstrike targeted a tent sheltering displaced people in Jabalia in the north, the agency said in a statement.
“Israel doesn’t understand ceasefires or truces,” said Osama Abu Askar, who said his nephew was killed in the Jabalia strike. He said the people killed there were hit as they slept.
“We’ve been living under a truce for months, and they’ve still targeted us. Israel operates on this principle — saying one thing and doing another,” Abu Askar told AFP.
Displaced Palestinian youth gather at the site of an overnight Israeli strike which killed several people according to medics at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on February 15, 2026. (Bashar Taleb / AFP)
Five more people were killed and several injured in a separate early-morning strike in the southern city of Khan Younis, the city’s Nasser Hospital announced. According to the hospital, all five were men in their 20s.
Rami Shaqra told the Associated Press that his son, al-Baraa, was among a group of gunmen who were “securing the area” when they were killed by an airstrike. AP footage from the morgue showed at least two of the men had headbands denoting membership in Hamas’s military wing.
The civil defense agency also said that one person was killed by Israeli gunfire in Beit Lahia in north Gaza. The reports did not differentiate between civilians and terror operatives.
Hazem Qassem, a Hamas spokesperson in Gaza, accused Israel of committing a new “massacre” against displaced Palestinians. An military official called Sunday’s strikes “precise” and in line with international law.
Nasser Hospital warns MSF over suspending work due to ‘armed men’
Meanwhile, after Doctors Without Borders announced it was suspending nonessential activities at Nasser Hospital due to the presence of gunmen, the hospital on Sunday accused the aid group, known by its French acronym MSF, of “aiding in manufacturing consent” for potential attacks on the southern Gaza medical center.
The Khan Younis hospital said there will be “foreseeable and grave consequences” if MSF does not retract the statement.
Palestinians walk past the clinic of Doctors Without Borders or Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), in the al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City on January 11, 2026. (Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
In the English-language press release via the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, the hospital claimed the presence of armed men “is aimed at securing safety for the staff and patients.”
According to the hospital, the armed men seen on site are not military personnel but rather police carrying out “protective, civilian and lawful” action against “uncontrolled individuals and groups” that have attacked the hospital.
“Despite full transparency and repeated clarification, MSF issued statements that misrepresent facts and mirror narratives historically used to justify attacks on hospitals,” Nasser Hospital said. “MSF is aiding in manufacturing consent for attacks against the hospital.”
The hospital issued a “formal notice” to MSF to “immediately retract” its allegations.
Palestinians mourn during the funeral of several Gazans killed in an overnight Israeli strike, according to medics at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on February 15, 2026 (Bashar Taleb / AFP)
“Failure to do so risks material contribution to the endangerment of a protected medical facility, with foreseeable and grave consequences,” said the hospital.
Last week, MSF said it was suspending its work at the facility due to “a recent situation of suspicion of movement of weapons.” The aid group also said that armed men had been arresting patients.
Israel has long offered evidence of medical facilities’ regular use by Palestinian terror groups as bases of operations due to their protected status. Hostages have also said they were held at Nasser Hospital.
Last year a doctor who also serves as a spokesperson for Nasser Hospital hinted that he had been threatened by Palestinian Islamic Jihad due to his refusal to let the terror group’s operatives enter and use the hospital.
Palestinian patients leave the Doctors Without Borders or Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) clinic, in the al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City on December 31, 2025. (Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Israel announced earlier this month that it was terminating all the organization’s activities in Gaza and the West Bank after it failed to provide a list of its Palestinian staff. MSF slammed the move, which takes effect on March 1, as a “pretext” to obstruct aid. Israel has accused MSF of having at least two employees who held membership in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas terror groups.
MSF has been a key provider of medical and humanitarian aid in Gaza, particularly since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion and massacre in southern Israel triggered a two-year war in the enclave.
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