A Gaza doctor went to work to save lives. Hours later, her children's burned bodies arrived

RNZ News

25-05-2025

By
Ibrahim Dahman
and
Tim Lister
, CNN
People walk past an ambulance vehicle outside Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on 18 June, 2024.
Photo:
BASHAR TALEB / AFP
Warning: This story contains details that may upset some readers.
Dr Alaa al-Najjar left her 10 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 Gaza Ministry of Health. They were Najjar's own children, killed in an Israeli airstrike on her family's home, Gaza Civil Defense said. The oldest was 12, the youngest just three years old. The bodies of two more children - a seven-month-old and a two-year-old - remained trapped under the rubble as of Saturday morning.
Only one of her children - critically injured - survived. Najjar's husband, himself 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 CNN 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 Yunis". It said it was reviewing the claim civilians had been killed.
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.
Munir al-Barsh, 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," Barsh posted on X. He said her husband was in intensive care.
"This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. 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," Barsh said.
Ahmad al-Farra, a doctor at the Nasser Medical Complex, told CNN that Dr. Najjar continued to work despite losing her children, while periodically checking on the condition of her husband and sole surviving child, Adam, who is 11.
Both the father and son underwent two surgeries at the hospital and are still receiving treatment, Farra said.
Youssef Abu al-Reesh, a senior official at the Ministry of Health, 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 pediatrician, but like most doctors in Gaza, she has been working in the emergency room during Israel's onslaught on the territory.
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CNN