Latest news with #DrAlaaAlNajjar
BBC News
6 hours ago
- Health
- BBC News
Gaza doctor whose nine children were killed in Israeli strike dies from injuries
A Palestinian doctor whose children were killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza on 23 May has died from injuries sustained in the same attack, health officials Hamdi al-Najjar had just returned from dropping his wife, Dr Alaa al-Najjar, off at Nasser Hospital, where the couple both worked, when their home in Khan Younis was struck. Nine of their children were killed, while the 10th was severely was treated in hospital for brain and internal injuries but died on Saturday. Alaa and their 11-year-old son Adam, who remains in hospital, are the sole remaining survivors of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said at the time that the incident was being reviewed. In a statement, it said "an aircraft struck several suspects identified by IDF forces as operating in a building near troops in the Khan Younis area, a dangerous combat zone that had been evacuated of civilians in advance for their protection. The claim of harm to uninvolved individuals is being reviewed."Dr Milena Angelova-Chee, a Bulgarian doctor working at Nasser hospital, told the BBC last week that Hamdi sustained significant injuries to his brain, lungs, right arm, and kidney in the Groom, a British surgeon working in the hospital who operated on the couple's son, Adam, told the BBC it was "unbearably cruel" that his mother Alaa, who spent years caring for children as a paediatrician, could lose almost all her own in a single said that Adam's "left arm was just about hanging off, he was covered in fragment injuries and he had several substantial lacerations." "Since both his parents are doctors, he seemed to be among the privileged group within Gaza, but as we lifted him onto the operating table, he felt much younger than 11." Italy's government on Thursday offered to treat Adam after an appeal from his uncle, Dr Ali al-Najjar, who told Italy's La Repubblica newspaper that the Nasser hospital was ill-equipped to treat him."He needs to be taken away immediately, to a real hospital, outside of the Gaza Strip. I beg the Italian government to do something, take him, Italians save him," he said."The Italian government has expressed its willingness to transfer the seriously injured boy to Italy," the foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that it was studying the feasibility of the proposal. Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas's cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken least 54,418 people have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
Arab News
2 days ago
- Business
- Arab News
Israel stands condemned, but why has it taken so long?
Since the EU's recent decision to initiate a review of Israel's compliance with its obligations under international law in the EU-Israel Association Agreement, and after the UK suspended trade talks with Israel and the leaders of Canada, France, and the UK issued a joint statement condemning the expansion of Israel's military operations in Gaza, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in Israeli military operations. In one incident, nine siblings of the same family were killed, and the war is still raging. So, forgive me if I find it difficult to get too excited about these latest diplomatic maneuvers to stop the senseless bloodshed, especially as this approach is still toothless, with no work on any time frame for introducing tangible measures. It is also the case that the argument 'better late than never' hardly holds water. Yes, if those baby-steps are the start of a concerted international effort to bring the war to an end, they will become immensely valuable, but there is much doubt about how effective they will be — and if they are not, what those countries intend to do. There is also the painful and lingering question: What has taken them so long? After all, every single day of delay in stopping the war has resulted in the deaths of many dozens of people, sometimes up to 100 a day, most of them noncombatants. In late May, nine of the 10 children of Dr. Alaa Al-Najjar and her husband Dr. Hamid were killed in an Israeli airstrike while she was on duty in the Nasser medical hospital. Only Hamid and one of their children survived, although both were badly injured. How could anyone remain indifferent in the face of such a tragedy, and one that could have been avoided, had the terms of the ceasefire agreed in January been adhered to? This is just one case of an entire family or a large part of them being wiped out in this war. If this heartbreaking tragedy does not move the world sufficiently to ensure that the Israeli government stops this war, what will? All the alarm bells regarding how Israel would conduct the war in Gaza were ringing from the first week of the conflict. Without taking anything away from the genuine anger at what Hamas inflicted on Oct. 7, the wish for revenge, and not only against those who carried out the attack, but against the entire population of Gaza, was instantly apparent. The unsubstantiated claim that every person in Gaza was complicit in the massacre should have been a warning sign. Moreover, between a government that failed to defend its people with horrendous consequences and would not admit to that failure, and senior Cabinet ministers who harbor messianic fantasies of expelling the Palestinians from Gaza, annexing the Strip and rebuilding settlements there, the likelihood of a proportionate response was always close to nil. Hence, it should not have taken the EU, UK, and Canada 19 long and blood-soaked months to figure this out. Every single day of delay has resulted in the deaths of dozens of people. Yossi Mekelberg Part of the explanation for the lack of will on the part of those who have suddenly found their voice in the past week or two and described what some Israeli ministers are suggesting will be the next stage in the war in Gaza as 'extremist,' 'dangerous' and 'monstrous' is that their working assumption has been that only Washington can make a difference, and that at best they could only play a supporting role. This has been more a case of relinquishing responsibility and avoiding friction, with Israel particularly, in the hope that either the US would use its influence to end the war, or the conflict would just run its course. This has proved to be misguided. In the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7, most of the world, and with good reason, showed its support for Israel's collective pain and trauma. However, at the same time it was irresponsible and shortsighted to give an extreme right-wing government led by a populist leader who happens also to be on trial for corruption, and whose sole interest is political survival at any cost, a blank check to respond to the massacre. For Europe, including the UK, what happens in the region is consequential and can have an immediate impact, whether it affects energy security, trade routes, radicalization within their own societies, or threatens a refugee crisis. Notwithstanding Europe's declared commitment to ensure human rights, Brussels also underestimates the enormous economic, diplomatic, and social power it has over Israel, not to harm its security, but to do the exact opposite: to save the country from itself when it is being governed by a reckless government. Moreover, at least some European powers should feel a moral and historical obligation for being the root cause of this conflict and for letting it fester for so long. It is nothing short of shocking that only in the past two weeks have there been some signs of concerted effort in Europe, out of despair at being unable to talk any sense into the Israeli government, or to stop the war and allow adequate humanitarian aid to enter the enclave. The EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas explained the reason for its review of the association agreement that gives Israel many economic and scientific advantages as being the 'catastrophic' situation in Gaza, with Israel 'potentially' in breach of its commitments to human rights in the agreement. In the UK Parliament, David Lammy, the foreign secretary, said that the suspension of trade talks was a response to both the prevention of humanitarian aid reaching Gaza, and Israel's intention, as stated by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, to 'cleanse' the enclave, with resident Palestinians 'being relocated to third countries.' And, out of character, Germany, which traditionally refrains from criticizing Israel, has felt that it can no longer stand on the sidelines, with its new Chancellor Friedrich Merz declaring that to cause such suffering to the civilian population 'can no longer be justified as a fight against Hamas terrorism.' Declarations and statements aside, reviewing agreements and suspending talks are not going to change Israel's course of action. At this juncture in the war, as it once more deploys massive forces on the border and inside Gaza, and with the government's ill intentions out in the open, Europe, the UK, and Canada will have to go beyond 'suspending' and 'reviewing.' If they do, it might also serve as a wake-up call for more Israelis to take to the streets and stop this murderous madness by its government.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
One afternoon in Gaza, two family tragedies: the childhoods cut short by Israeli airstrikes
At about 3pm last Friday, Dr Alaa al-Najjar, a paediatrician at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, received the charred remains of seven of her 10 children, killed in an Israeli airstrike. The bodies of two others were buried beneath the rubble. A few miles away, 11-year-old Yaqeen Hammad, known as Gaza's youngest social media influencer, was killed after a series of heavy Israeli airstrikes hit the house where she lived with her family. She was watering flowers in a tiny patch of greenery eked out of a displacement camp when she died. Her cousin, 16-year-old Eyad, was gravely wounded. Even by the terrible standards of the Gaza conflict, the deaths had the power to shock. But they were also a reflection of a daily reality in the territory: the killing and maiming of its very youngest citizens and the destruction of a young generation. According to local health officials, whose estimates have generally been found to be accurate by the global humanitarian community, more than 16,500 children have been killed in the 19 months since the war began – a figure almost 24 times higher than the number of children killed in Ukraine, where the population is 20 times bigger, since Russia's invasion. The World Health Organization tally for child deaths stands at 15,613. Colleagues of Najjar say that in the days since she lost her children she has spent her waking hours weeping outside a room in Nasser hospital. Inside lies her only surviving child, 11-year-old Adam, who is clinging to life with the help of a ventilator, his breathing shallow and his more than 60% of his body covered in burns. Najjar's husband, Hamdi, a 40-year-old physician, also survived the strike, but suffered severe injuries including brain damage and fractures caused by shrapnel. Reached by the Guardian, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said 'the Khan Younis area is a dangerous war zone' and that 'the claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review'. Speaking to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Adam's uncle, Ali al-Najjar, 50, issued a desperate plea: 'Adam must be taken away, to a real hospital, outside Gaza. I beg the Italian government – do something. Take him. Save him, Italians.' On Thursday, Italy's foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said the country was ready to receive Adam for medical care and was working to arrange his evacuation. Along a corridor in the same hospital where Adam is being treated lies Eyad. His father – and Yaqeen's uncle – is Hussein Hassan, a 46-year-old Red Crescent paramedic. Hassan said he was working in the hospital's emergency department when he received a call saying his son had been injured and his niece killed by a missile. Hassan said the family had received no warning that a strike was imminent and that he was haunted by the question of why a missile would be fired that hit children watering and planting flowers. 'How could this be? The children are still so young to be considered targets,' he said. 'Was there a targeted vehicle nearby? Or someone being pursued who passed by the street? I don't know.' When news of Yaqeen's death spread online on Monday, there was an outpouring grief and tributes from activists, followers and journalists. 'Yaqeen was cheerful, full of energy,' Hassan said. 'Due to my workload I hadn't seen her in a month before she died – and that's what hurt the most, that my last sight of her was when she was wrapped in a white shroud. 'I said my goodbye to her in the morgue at al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir-al Balah, and then carried her cold body into the ambulance to be transported for burial. Her family is devastated – she was their pampered youngest, the baby of the family.' Eyad remains in intensive care in Nasser hospital. He lost his left eye in the strike and has a fractured shoulder. When he was admitted to the hospital, shrapnel was embedded in various parts of his body. 'Seeing him in that condition broke my heart – my son, now lying in the hospital before my eyes,' Hassan said. 'Yaqeen's story is like that of so many children in Gaza who have been killed in the war, for no reason. They are not just numbers – each child has a story, a life, and families who are heartbroken by their loss.' The IDF says it is reviewing the circumstances of the strike. Three days later, in Gaza City, another family suffered another unimaginable loss. Six-year-old Ward Khalil's mother and two of her siblings were among dozens of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on Fahmi al-Jarjawi school. Harrowing footage showed Ward leaving the scene of the strike, her body silhouetted against flames that had engulfed the school. The next day Ward gave an interview to Al Jazeera in which she recounted the horrors she had experienced. 'When I woke up, I found a huge fire, and I saw my mom was dead,' she said. 'I walked in the fire so I could escape … I was in the fire, and the ceiling fell on me. The ceiling all collapsed. The fire was blazing,' On top of Israeli strikes, Gaza's children are facing catastrophic levels of hunger. Aid agencies say Palestinian children are also bearing the brunt of an Israeli aid blockade that for nearly three months has severely restricted the flow of food and humanitarian assistance into the territory. The consequences have been devastating: last week, in one 48-hour period, 29 children and elderly people died from starvation, according to the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority health minister, Majed Abu Ramadan. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) estimated in May that nearly 71,000 children under the age of five were expected to be acutely malnourished by next March. Of these, 14,100 cases are expected to be severe. According to the UN humanitarian aid organisation for children, Unicef, more than 9,000 children have been treated for malnutrition in Gaza this year. 'These children – lives that should never be reduced to numbers – are now part of a long, harrowing list of unimaginable horrors,' Unicef said in a statement this week. 'The children of Gaza need protection,' it said. 'They need food, water, and medicine. They need a ceasefire. But more than anything, they need immediate, collective action to stop this once and for all.'
Al Jazeera
4 days ago
- Health
- Al Jazeera
Israel is burning Gaza's children. And the world lets it happen
Dr Alaa al-Najjar, a 36-year-old paediatrician and mother of 10, spent the morning of Friday, May 23, doing what she had devoted her life to: Saving children at Gaza's Nasser Hospital. By nightfall, she was no longer a healer but a mourner, cradling the charred, dismembered remains of her own children – Yahya, Rakan, Ruslan, Jubran, Eve, Revan, Sayden, Luqman, and Sidra. Seven were confirmed dead. Two remain buried beneath the rubble, including her youngest, six-month-old Sayden, still asleep in his crib when Dr al-Najjar kissed him goodbye that morning. In just one Israeli air strike – in just one minute – her entire world was annihilated. Her husband Hamdy, 40, also a doctor, and their son Adam, 11, are in the ICU, their lives hanging by a thread inside Gaza's disintegrating health system – not by chance but by design. The repeated, intentional targeting of hospitals and clinics has left Gaza's healthcare infrastructure in ruins. In just one week, 12 of Gaza's most dedicated nurses were killed, one by one. Commenting on the family's condition, Dr Graeme Groom, a British surgeon working in Nasser Hospital who operated on them, said the father had suffered a 'penetrating injury to his head', while 'Adam's left arm was just about hanging off; he was covered in fragment injuries and had several substantial lacerations.' Her daughter Revan's body was burned beyond recognition – 'nothing remained of her skin or flesh,' her uncle said. In tears, Dr Alaa begged rescuers to let her hold her daughter one last time. Sadly, the white shrouds wrapped around the bodies of Gaza's children continue to mount. Yaqeen Hammad is now one of those shrouded and buried children. Just 11 years old, Yaqeen was one of Gaza's youngest social media influencers. In her short life, she embodied what Palestinian scholar and poet Rafeef Ziadah called Palestinian ways in 'teaching life'. Yaqeen made desserts. She delivered food. She brought happiness to children who had lost everything. In one of her videos, while preparing food, she told the world: 'In Gaza, we don't know the word impossible.' This was her crime. On May 23, the same day Alaa's children were incinerated, Israel decided that Yaqeen was somehow a threat to its existence. Multiple air raids hit her neighbourhood in Deir el-Balah and ended her life. She was one of 18,000 Palestinian children killed since October, one of 1,300+ since Israel broke the ceasefire in March, and one of dozens in just 48 hours. Commenting on the moral double standards applied to Palestinians, Dan Sheehan, editor at Literary Hub, noted: 'If an 11-year-old Israeli influencer – a girl who delivered food and toys to displaced children – had been killed, the Empire State Building would be lit up for her. Her face would be on the homepage of every major US news outlet. Her name would be on the tongue of every politician.' But, for Yaqeen, there is only silence. A seasoned Palestinian diplomat at the UN, Riyad Mansour, was so disturbed by the scale of this destruction against children that he broke down in tears during a statement. Video footage showed Danny Danon – his Israeli counterpart – stifling a yawn in response. In the face of the death of Palestinian children, Israel yawns in indifference. This is unsurprising, with a recent poll showing that 82 percent of Jewish Israelis support expelling Palestinians from Gaza. How can Palestinians be told, then, to bring themselves – and their children – to Israeli military aid delivery stations and expect safety, not savagery? 'How,' in the words of leading Gaza human rights lawyer Raji Sourani, 'could the hand that kills also become the hand that feeds?' Of course, the answer is that it cannot: Israel's killing hands are reaching far into the Gaza Strip, and children feel the brunt. One of those who avoided the fate of martyrdom is Ward al-Sheikh Khalil, a five-year-old girl who was sheltering at a UN school. She awoke to flames engulfing the classroom where her family was sleeping. Her mum and siblings were killed in the Israeli strike. The roof collapsed, and she was filmed as she tried to escape while her small body was swallowed by smoke and chaos. Rescued by a medic, she whispered, when asked where her mother and siblings were: 'Under the rubble.' Another young girl was pulled from beneath the ruins of the classroom, her body half burned. Will her pain be enough to move the hearts of politicians? How many girls like her? How many boys? How many broken, charred, or buried bodies will it take before this genocide is named and stopped? Will the number of 18,000 Palestinian children – whose names we may never fully know – not be enough? In December 2023, UNICEF, the UN's children's agency, declared: 'The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.' On May 27, the organisation stated that 'Since the end of the ceasefire on 18 March, 1,309 children have reportedly been killed and 3,738 injured. In total, more than 50,000 children have reportedly been killed or injured since October 2023. How many more dead girls and boys will it take? What level of horror must be livestreamed before the international community fully steps up, uses its influence, and takes bold, decisive action to force the end of this ruthless killing of children?' Typically, when a building is on fire, all emergency measures are taken to save lives. No efforts are spared. In Vietnam, the cries of one napalmed child – 9-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc – galvanised global efforts to stop the war. The body of one small Syrian boy – 3-year-old Alan Kurdi – moved an entire continent to receive refugees. But, in Gaza, girls running from fire, pulled from the rubble and burned beyond recognition are not enough to provoke action. In Gaza, when children are caught in the fire of relentless bombing, the world turns its back. No amount of pain or suffering seems to inspire the leaders of this world to take action to put out this raging inferno on the bodies of the innocents. As Jehad Abusalim, executive director of the Institute for Palestine Studies USA, put it with raw clarity: 'Why did burning girls matter in Vietnam but not in Gaza?' In Vietnam, a single image – the napalmed girl running down a road – shook the American conscience. But 'in Gaza, there are dozens of 'napalm girl' moments every single day. These images don't arrive filtered through distant photo wires or delayed coverage; they come live, unfiltered, and relentless. The world is not lacking in evidence. It is drowning in it. So why doesn't it react?' One small glint of hope comes from the 1,200 Israeli academics who have signed a protest letter focused on Palestinian suffering. Their moral clarity is reflected in a very simple statement: We can't say we didn't know. Let these words pierce the conscience of every politician and every diplomat in the Western world: You cannot say you didn't know. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
Irish Times
5 days ago
- Health
- Irish Times
Sligo-based doctor whose nine nieces and nephews were killed in Gaza: ‘I'm not seeking revenge, I just want this madness to end'
The uncle of nine girls and boys from one family who were killed in an Israeli air strike last week has called on Ireland to end Israeli 'impunity' and play its role in bringing 'accountability' to those responsible for death and destruction in Gaza . Dr Ali Al Najjar, a Palestinian doctor who works at Sligo University Hospital , said he hoped to see the Dáil pass the Occupied Territories Bill without delay and that he believed the legislation could prompt a domino effect in other countries. 'It worked with South Africa; maybe if we did the same with Israel and isolated Israel economically and politically,' Dr Al Najjar told RTÉ's Liveline programme. Last Friday, Dr Alaa al-Najjar, a paediatrician living and working in Khan Younis, lost nine of her 10 children in an Israeli air strike on the city. A few hours after the strike, the charred bodies of seven of the children were brought to the hospital where she worked, while two other bodies remain buried under the rubble. Just one of her children, 11-year-old Adan, and her husband, Hamdi, survived the attack. Both father and son were severely wounded. READ MORE The names of the children who died in the air strike were Yahya, Rakan, Eve, Jubran, Ruslan, Revan, Sayden, Luqman and Sidra. Sidra's twin Sidar died aged three months due to an infection and lack of medication, Dr Al Najjar said on Wednesday. 'The whole point of sharing my voice is I hope the tragedy Alaa had is going to be the last tragedy. If what happened, happened for a reason, and puts more pressure to end this war of injustice and end this nightmare, I will be satisfied. 'I'm not seeking revenge from anyone, I just want this madness to end. I wish no one else to go through what we are going through.' Dr Al Najjar, who is currently visiting family in Saudi Arabia, recalled how he spoke with his sister by phone three weeks before the air strike. She told him life in Gaza had become 'doomsday' and that when neighbours great each other, they say 'farewell'. She said, 'We don't know when we'll meet again. Anyone is expecting his moment at any time.' During this conversation, his sister said her children remained 'resilient'. Two of the children of the Al-Najjar family who were killed in an Israeli airstrike, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, on May 24th. Photograph: Reuters/Hussam Al-Masri Eleven-year-old Adan, the only surviving child of doctor Dr Alaa al-Najjar, lies in a bed at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis after an Israeli airstrike hit their home. Photograph: Hani Alshaer/Anadolu Last Friday, he learned about the deaths of his nieces and nephews through a mix of news reports, social media posts and sporadic messages in family WhatsApp groups, he said. Asked what Ireland can do in response to the ongoing war in Gaza, Dr Al Najjar said the international community should no longer 'tolerate' the Israeli government's calls 'for the erasure of Gaza openly'. 'They are very honest and they don't feel shame about publicly verbalising it. We need accountability; they feel they have impunity to do whatever they want.' Dr Al Najjar said his sister had three requests – that people pray for her surviving son and husband; that the bodies of her two children be retrieved from the rubble; and that the destruction of her family become a turning point that 'will hopefully end this mad war'. Nearly 54,000 Palestinians, including more than 16,500 children, have been killed across the territory since the war began, according to the Gaza health ministry. Isam Hammad, a former manager of a medical equipment company in Gaza who was reunited with his family in Ireland last year, recalled spending time in the Al Najjar household before the war began. [ 'We are dying of hunger': Palestinians storm aid centre in southern Gaza Opens in new window ] 'I met Hamdi in the house where they were bombed; this family used to have a medical clinic. It's a terrible story but this is going on every day. So many families have been wiped from the face of this earth. Even if she lost one child or two, it's the same, it's just killing.' Mr Hammad, who is still awaiting a residency permit for his family after more than a year in Ireland, agrees that sanctions should be taken against Israel without delay. 'When Russia invaded Ukraine sanctions were put in action in no time. But now, we're still thinking and talking about whether to impose sanctions or not. There's no point in talking about human rights any more, countries are not responding. Palestinian lives have no value.'
