Alaa went to work at the emergency room in Gaza. Hours later, her children's bodies were brought in
Dr Alaa al-Najjar left her ten children at home on Friday when she went to work in the emergency room at the Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza.
Hours later, the bodies of seven children — most of them badly burned — arrived at the hospital, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
They were Najjar's own children, killed in an Israeli airstrike on her family's home, Gaza Civil Defense said.
The bodies of two more of her children — a 7-month-old and a 12-year-old who authorities presume to be dead — remain missing.
Only one of her ten children, 11-year-old Adam, survived. Najjar's husband Hamdi, also a doctor, was also badly injured in the strike.
Civil defense and the health ministry say that the family's home, in a neighbourhood of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, was targeted by an Israeli airstrike.
In response to a request for comment, the Israeli military said aircraft had 'struck a number of suspects who were identified operating from a structure adjacent to IDF troops in the area of Khan Younis'.
It said it was reviewing the claim civilians had been killed.
Israel's military chief Eyal Zamir went to Khan Younis on Sunday, according to a statement from the IDF.
'Hamas is under immense pressure — it has lost most of its assets and its command and control. We will deploy every tool at our disposal to bring the hostages home, dismantle Hamas, and dismantle its rule,' Zamir told troops, adding that the military needs to now take down Hamas' Khan Younis brigade.
Gaza Civil Defense published graphic video from the scene of the strike. It showed medics lifting an injured man onto a stretcher as other first responders try to extinguish a fire engulfing the house. They recover the charred remains of several children from the debris and wrap them in white sheets.
Hamdi, 38, had dropped his wife at the hospital and gone to get food for his children, his niece Dr Sahar al-Najjar said.
When he returned, he witnessed a missile strike on their home that failed to detonate. He rushed inside to rescue his children but was hit by a second Israeli strike.
'My father went to rescue Uncle Hamdi but found Adam on the street and took him to the hospital,' she said.
'Uncle Hamdi was taken by civil defense, and the rest of the children were all charred.'
Last bottle of milk
Sahar said Alaa broke down when she showed the last bottle of breast milk she had expressed for her infant daughter, Sidra, whose body remains missing.
'She told me today that her chest aches so much as she was breastfeeding,' Sahar said on Sunday.
'Every day at work, Dr Alaa pumped milk to provide for Sidra, and today she showed me the last bottle she prepared for her.'
'Dr Alaa can barely speak. If you could see her face, you would understand her pain. She is only praying for her son and husband to recover.'
When Adam, the sole surviving child, came out of the operating room, he called out for his sister Eve, saying, 'There's blood on the tree'.
One of Adam's arms is severely injured, and he will need another surgery in a few days. His father remains in critical condition.
In a condolence message to Najjar, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Israeli-occupied West Bank said she will always be remembered as 'the steadfast Palestinian woman and the noble doctor who heals the wounds of others while bearing her own pain in silence'.
'This horrific crime is not an isolated incident, but part of a systematic targeting of medical personnel and institutions, aimed at breaking the will of those standing steadfast in Gaza,' it said.
'Wiping out entire families'
Munir al-Boursh, Director-General of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, said that Najjar's husband had just returned home when the home was struck.
'Nine of their children were killed: Yahya, Rakan, Raslan, Gebran, Eve, Rival, Sayden, Luqman, and Sidra,' Boursh posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
'This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure,' Boursh said.
'Words fall short in describing the pain. In Gaza, it is not only healthcare workers who are targeted — Israel's aggression goes further, wiping out entire families.'
Ahmad al-Farra, a doctor at the Nasser Medical Complex, said Najjar continued to work despite losing her children, while periodically checking on the condition of her husband and Adam.
Youssef Abu al-Reesh, a senior official at the Health Ministry, said Najjar had left her children at home to 'fulfill her duty and her calling toward all those sick children who have no place but Nasser Hospital'.
Reesh said that when he arrived at the hospital, he had seen her 'standing tall, calm, patient, composed, with eyes full of acceptance'.
'You could hear nothing from her but quiet murmurs of (glorification of God) and (seeking forgiveness).'
Najjar, 38, is a paediatrician, but like most doctors in Gaza, she has been working in the emergency room during Israel's onslaught on the territory.
As southern Gaza comes under renewed attack, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Sunday that two of its team members were killed in a strike on their home in Khan Younis on Saturday. The Israeli military has been contacted for comment on the strike.
'Their killing points to the intolerable civilian death toll in Gaza,' the ICRC said in a statement posted to X.
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Sydney Morning Herald
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ABC News
2 days ago
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United Nations says Gaza aid site attacks 'may constitute a war crime'
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Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Gaza aid sites closed as Israel declares ‘combat zones'
Gaza aid distribution centres will be closed for the day on Wednesday, and the Israeli military warned that roads leading to them have been designated as 'combat zones'. The move comes after Palestinian health officials and witnesses said Israeli forces fired on people heading towards an aid distribution site on Tuesday, killing at least 27 people, in the third such incident in three days. The Israeli army said it fired 'near a few individual suspects' who left the designated route, approached its forces and ignored warning shots, and said it was looking into reports of casualties. It has previously denied firing on civilians or blocking them from reaching the aid sites. The US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said its distribution centres would be closed for a day for 'update, organisation, and efficiency improvement work'. 'Please do not go to the site and follow general instructions. Operations will resume on Thursday', the group said in a post on Facebook. The GHF has also announced its new executive chairman as an American evangelical Christian leader who previously backed US President Donald Trump's proposal for the US to take over Gaza. Reverend Dr Johnnie Moore, an evangelical adviser to Trump during his first term, replaces former GHF chief Jake Wood, who resigned last week saying the organisation could not fulfil the principles of 'humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence'. In a statement posted on X, Moore said the group 'believes that serving the people of Gaza with dignity and compassion must be the top priority'. 'The old way of doing things just won't get it done,' he said.
