Outrage, horror after Israeli attack kills nine children of Gaza doctor
An Israeli strike has killed nearly the entire family of a Khan Younis doctor while she was at work, Gaza health officials said.
The attack hit the home of Alaa al-Najjar, a paediatrician at the southern city's Nasser Hospital, on Friday, setting it ablaze and killing nine of her 10 children, according to the head of the hospital's paediatrics department, Ahmad al-Farra.
Al-Najjar's husband is severely wounded, and the couple's only surviving child, 11-year-old Adam, is in critical condition, Gaza's Government Media Office said in a statement.
The dead children, two of whom remain under the rubble, range in age from seven months to 12 years old, the media office added.
The attack 'encapsulates the ongoing genocide faced by the Palestinian people in Gaza,' said the office. 'It is a full-fledged war crime under all international laws and conventions.'
The UN's special rapporteur for the Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, slammed the attack as part of a 'sadistic pattern' of a 'new phase of genocide' facing Palestinians in the besieged enclave.
Hamas said it followed a routine of Israel 'deliberately targeting … medical personnel, civilians and their families in an attempt to break their will'.
The Israeli military said it had struck suspected fighters operating from a structure next to its forces in an area where civilians had been evacuated. 'The claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review,' the military added.
On Monday, Israel issued forced evacuation orders for Khan Younis, Gaza's second-largest city, warning of an 'unprecedented attack'. There has been heavy, deadly bombardment in the area daily.
The al-Najjar children were among dozens killed in Israel's attacks on Friday and Saturday.
According to Gaza's Health Ministry, the bodies of 79 people killed in Israeli attacks were brought to hospitals between Friday and midday Saturday. That count does not include facilities in the north of the enclave that are inaccessible, it said.
The ministry puts the overall death toll in Gaza since October 2023 at 53,901, with 122,593 injured.
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However, an IDF official admitted that Israeli soldiers fired 'warning shots toward several suspects who advanced toward the troops', near the food distribution site, without specifying who the suspects were. Gaza's Government Media Office said Israel had killed more than 102 civilians since the opening of the of aid centres run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies in March, saying Hamas was seizing deliveries for its fighters, which the group denies. Earlier this month, a global hunger monitor said half a million people in the strip faced starvation. The GHF took over the handling of aid despite objections from the UN and other humanitarian organisations, who criticised the new system for food distribution, saying it would not be able to meet the needs of Gaza's 2.3 million people, and it allowed Israel to use food as a weapon to control the population. The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.
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The UN and aid groups have said aid diversion is not happening to any significant degree. Virtually all major aid groups say that the current system does not deliver enough aid and it sets a dangerous precedent to allow a warring party to control aid distribution. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation insists it has successfully distributed aid and has disputed reports of near-daily shootings at or near its distribution sites. The Hamas-run interior ministry has urged Palestinians not to "co-operate" with the aid distribution system and has threatened unspecified consequences. Aid groups have described chaotic scenes of violence as crowds of desperate Palestinians rush aid distribution centres while Israeli soldiers fire shots nearby. Ottawa-based Human Concern International paused 17 aid trucks destined for Gaza last week and accused Israel of imposing a dangerous distribution system. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has refused to disclose whether it receives any public or private funds from Canada. On Wednesday, Canada joined the European Union and the U.K. in a joint statement condemning "escalating settler violence and a prevailing climate of impunity" in the West Bank. The statement spoke about the Palestinian community of Mughayyir a-Deir being forced to flee, framing it as part of "a broader and deeply troubling pattern of violent settler attacks and a lack of protection by the Israeli authorities." The statement decried "a coercive environment marked by repeated settler violence, movement restrictions, land confiscation, demolitions and inadequate access to essential services" and said that the "forcible transfer" of Palestinians undermines prospects for peace in the region. Tuesday's comments follow a Monday post by MP Randeep Sarai, the secretary of state for international development, who said Palestinians face "profoundly disturbing" hunger in Gaza and "must be protected and treated with dignity." The federal Liberals have been taking heat from human rights groups for not following through on a threat last month to impose targeted sanctions on Israel if the situation worsens in the Palestinian territories. Since then, international organizations have repeatedly warned of a risk of famine in Gaza, while the Israel government has said it will expand settlements in the West Bank. In a newspaper column this week, Moed accused Hamas of spreading misinformation about what's happening in Gaza and said this is contributing to a rise in antisemitic violence. Israel bars foreign journalists from entering Gaza without being accompanied by Israeli soldiers. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 4, 2025. Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press
