A Gaza doctor was at work. Then nine of her 10 children were killed in an Israeli strike
Cairo: Nine of a doctor's 10 children were among those killed in Israel's renewed military offensive, colleagues and Gaza's Health Ministry said.
Alaa Najjar, a pediatrician at Nasser Hospital, was on duty at the time and ran home to find her family's house on fire, Ahmad al-Farra, head of the hospital's pediatric department, said.
Najjar's husband was severely wounded and their only surviving child, an 11-year-old son, was in a critical condition after Friday's strike in the southern city of Khan Younis, Farra said.
The dead children ranged in age from seven months to 12 years old. Khalil Al-Dokran, a spokesperson for Gaza's Health Ministry, said two of the children remained under the rubble.
The children were among 79 people killed by Israeli strikes who have been brought to hospitals in the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said, a toll that doesn't include hospitals in the battered north that it said are now inaccessible.
Israel's military in a statement said it struck suspects operating from a structure next to its forces, and described the area of Khan Younis as a 'dangerous war zone'. It said it had evacuated civilians from the area, and 'the claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review'.
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Earlier on Saturday, a statement said Israel's air force struck over 100 targets throughout Gaza over the past day.
The Health Ministry said the new deaths brought the war's toll to 53,901 since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel in which some 1200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage, sparking the 19 months of fighting. The ministry said 3747 people had been killed in Gaza since Israel resumed the war on March 18 to pressure Hamas to accept different ceasefire terms. Its count doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants.
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The memories of "starving children" with horrific injuries still haunt emergency doctor Mohammed Mustafa. Warning: This story contains graphic details of dead bodies and animals. Dr Mustafa, known as Dr Mo, recently returned from his second volunteer medical mission to Gaza and the 35-year-old is considering a third. He said the only way to describe the situation inside Gaza was "apocalyptic". "You see dogs eating people in the streets, dead bodies in the streets, [dogs] pulling blown up arms out of rubble, or a leg and running away with it," he told the ABC. "There's a saying here, 'The only things that are not hungry in Gaza are the dogs', because they have a lot of people to feed on." Born to a Palestinian refugee family, Dr Mo has had time to reflect on his experience. Arriving just as a fragile ceasefire between Hamas and Israel collapsed in March this year, Dr Mo spent three weeks volunteering in north Gaza's al-Ahli Hospital. He said Al-Ahil Hospital was one of the last fully functional hospitals standing in Gaza but was severely lacking in medical supplies, including proper sanitisation and adequate anaesthesia. Israel has bombed it including in April, in what their military said was targeting a Hamas "command and control centre" — a claim denied by the group. Dr Mo said there were days when hospital staff only had one portion of rice or lentils to eat for the entire day. He'd stop eating altogether on some days to save and ration food for those in greater need. "I just wanted to work. I just wanted to be there to help. It wasn't a big issue to me whether I was full or not," he said. He said he was one of the lucky ones, when many of the people, including children, he saw were severely malnourished or "starving". In May in the lead-up to Israel deciding to allow a "basic amount of food" into Gaza , the United Nations World Food Programme warned populations across the Strip were at risk of famine. 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The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. The Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Saturday that at least 274 people have so far been killed, and more than 2000 wounded, near aid distribution sites since the GHF began operations in Gaza. Hamas, which denies Israeli charges that it steals aid, accused Israel of "employing hunger as a weapon of war and turning aid distribution sites into traps of mass deaths of innocent civilians." Later on Saturday, health officials at Shifa Hospital in Gaza said Israeli fire killed at least 12 Palestinians, who gathered to wait for aid trucks along the coastal road north of the strip, taking Saturday's death toll to at least 35. The Israeli military ordered residents of Khan Younis and the nearby towns of Abassan and Bani Suhaila in the southern Gaza Strip to leave their homes and head west towards the so-called humanitarian zone, saying it would forcefully work against "terror organisations" in the area. The war in Gaza erupted 20 months ago after Hamas-led militants raided Israel and took 251 hostages and killed 1200 people, most of them civilians, on October 7, 2023, Israel's single deadliest day. Israel's military campaign since has killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza, and flattened much of the densely populated strip, which is home to more than two million people. Most of the population is displaced, and malnutrition is widespread. Despite efforts by the United States, Egypt, and Qatar to restore a ceasefire in Gaza, neither Israel nor Hamas has shown willingness to back down on core demands, with each side blaming the other for the failure to reach a deal. Israeli fire and air strikes have killed at least 35 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, most of them near an aid distribution site operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, local health authorities said. Medics at Al-Awda and Al-Aqsa Hospitals in central Gaza areas, where most of the casualties were moved to, said at least 15 people were killed as they tried to approach the GHF aid distribution site near the Netzarim corridor. The rest were killed in separate attacks across the enclave, they added. There has been no immediate comment by the Israeli military or the GHF on Saturday's incidents. The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. The Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Saturday that at least 274 people have so far been killed, and more than 2000 wounded, near aid distribution sites since the GHF began operations in Gaza. Hamas, which denies Israeli charges that it steals aid, accused Israel of "employing hunger as a weapon of war and turning aid distribution sites into traps of mass deaths of innocent civilians." Later on Saturday, health officials at Shifa Hospital in Gaza said Israeli fire killed at least 12 Palestinians, who gathered to wait for aid trucks along the coastal road north of the strip, taking Saturday's death toll to at least 35. The Israeli military ordered residents of Khan Younis and the nearby towns of Abassan and Bani Suhaila in the southern Gaza Strip to leave their homes and head west towards the so-called humanitarian zone, saying it would forcefully work against "terror organisations" in the area. The war in Gaza erupted 20 months ago after Hamas-led militants raided Israel and took 251 hostages and killed 1200 people, most of them civilians, on October 7, 2023, Israel's single deadliest day. Israel's military campaign since has killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza, and flattened much of the densely populated strip, which is home to more than two million people. Most of the population is displaced, and malnutrition is widespread. Despite efforts by the United States, Egypt, and Qatar to restore a ceasefire in Gaza, neither Israel nor Hamas has shown willingness to back down on core demands, with each side blaming the other for the failure to reach a deal.
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Israeli fire kills 35 people in Gaza, many at aid site
Israeli fire and air strikes have killed at least 35 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, most of them near an aid distribution site operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, local health authorities said. Medics at Al-Awda and Al-Aqsa Hospitals in central Gaza areas, where most of the casualties were moved to, said at least 15 people were killed as they tried to approach the GHF aid distribution site near the Netzarim corridor. The rest were killed in separate attacks across the enclave, they added. There has been no immediate comment by the Israeli military or the GHF on Saturday's incidents. The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. The Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Saturday that at least 274 people have so far been killed, and more than 2000 wounded, near aid distribution sites since the GHF began operations in Gaza. Hamas, which denies Israeli charges that it steals aid, accused Israel of "employing hunger as a weapon of war and turning aid distribution sites into traps of mass deaths of innocent civilians." Later on Saturday, health officials at Shifa Hospital in Gaza said Israeli fire killed at least 12 Palestinians, who gathered to wait for aid trucks along the coastal road north of the strip, taking Saturday's death toll to at least 35. The Israeli military ordered residents of Khan Younis and the nearby towns of Abassan and Bani Suhaila in the southern Gaza Strip to leave their homes and head west towards the so-called humanitarian zone, saying it would forcefully work against "terror organisations" in the area. The war in Gaza erupted 20 months ago after Hamas-led militants raided Israel and took 251 hostages and killed 1200 people, most of them civilians, on October 7, 2023, Israel's single deadliest day. Israel's military campaign since has killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza, and flattened much of the densely populated strip, which is home to more than two million people. Most of the population is displaced, and malnutrition is widespread. Despite efforts by the United States, Egypt, and Qatar to restore a ceasefire in Gaza, neither Israel nor Hamas has shown willingness to back down on core demands, with each side blaming the other for the failure to reach a deal.
