Latest news with #DrHamdiAlNajjar
CBC
3 days ago
- Health
- CBC
Palestinian boy, 11, sole survivor of strike that killed his father and 9 siblings. Still, he smiles
Adam, 11, smiles brightly in the face of unimaginable horrors. The Palestinian boy is recovering in Gaza's Nasser Hospital from injuries sustained in a May 23 Israeli airstrike on his home that killed his father, who was a doctor, and all nine of his siblings. "Adam is doing remarkably well. He is much, much better than I thought he would [be]," Dr. Graeme Groom, the British orthopaedic surgeon caring the boy, told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal. "He has an angelic little face and it lights up in the most gorgeous smile." Adam and his mother, a pediatrician who was working at Nasser when her husband and children were killed, are now their immediate family's sole survivors. And their situation, says Groom, is not remotely unique in Gaza. 'Like a crushed can of sardines' Adam's father, Dr. Hamdi Al-Najjar, died on Saturday from brain and internal injuries sustained in the strike on his home in Khan Younis. His nine other children — Yahya, Rakan, Ruslan, Jubran, Eve, Rivan, Saydeen, Luqma and Sidra — were all killed in the same strike. When their mother, Dr. Alaa al-Najjar, heard about the airstrike, she ran on foot from the hospital to her home, Hamdi's niece, Sahra Al-Najjar, told CBC News last week. But she was too late. When she arrived, her home was reduced to rubble, and her children's bodies were so badly burned, she couldn't tell them apart. "Who were you targeting? Kids?" Sahra said. "This is your strength? WATCH | 9 children, all siblings, killed by Israeli airstrike: Airstrike kills 9 children of Gaza doctor as Israelis demand end to war 8 days ago Duration 2:11 The Israeli military says it's reviewing an airstrike that killed nine children of a doctor working at a hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, as patience with the war grows thin among some Israeli citizens demanding an end to the fighting and a return of the remaining hostages. The youngest of the slain children was six months old, and the oldest was 13, according to Al-Najjar's brother, Ali Al-Najjar. He, too, rushed to the scene of the bombing that day. "The house was like a crushed can of sardines," he told CBC News the day after the strike, while his brother was still in intensive care. The Israeli military has confirmed it conducted an airstrike on Khan Younis that day, but said it was targeting suspects in a structure that was close to Israeli soldiers. The military is looking into claims that "uninvolved civilians" were killed, it said, adding that the military had evacuated civilians from the area before the operation began. Sahra says there's no good reason her uncle and his family should be targeted. "He was very straight," she said. "He was very famous in the medical field. He had nothing to do with any political movements." Dozens of Palestinians marched in Hamdi's funeral in Gaza on Saturday. Doctor has served in 14 wars, but none so bad as this Groom says he's been in regular contact with Adam's mother, though their conversations have focused on her surviving son's health. "She's poised and professional," he said. "She is keenly interested in Adam and his progress." Groom says whole families being nearly wiped out has become par for the course in Gaza. He works for the charity Islamic Help U.K., and says he's served in 14 global conflicts. "If we put all the others together, it would not come close to matching this," he said. "The number of injured, the appalling nature of their injuries, the inevitable long-term disability outstrip anything we have encountered to date — and I've had a long career looking after the wounded of many wars." Just last week, he says, he operated on a seven-year-old boy who lost both of his parents and all of his siblings but one. At night, he cried out for a mother who was already gone. "Every operating [room] has stories like that," he said. "When I speak to Palestinian friends and colleagues about this, they shrug and say, 'This is our life.'" Israel began its offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli tallies, and saw 251 taken as hostages into Gaza. Israel's campaign has devastated much of Gaza, killing more than 54,000 Palestinians, according to Gazan tallies, and left huge swaths of the territory, including schools, hospitals and residential buildings, in ruin. The International Court of Justice is investigating whether Israel's actions in Gaza constitute a genocide, an allegation Israel strongly denies, and which has been repeated by human rights group Amnesty International. Last month, Canada joined Britain and France in threatening Israel with sanctions if it does not stop a renewed military offensive in Gaza and lift aid restrictions. That smile again As for Adam, Groom says he's making a remarkable recovery. When the child first arrived in the operating room just over a week ago, he was filthy and badly wounded, his body peppered with penetrating wounds from the force of the explosion. He was bleeding from both ears, the result of a cranial nerve injury, and his left arm and wrist were broken. Groom says they thought they would have to amputate his arm, but in the end, they were able to save it. Adam speaks English well, says Groom, so he's able to communicate clearly with him. But he's not sure how much the boy understands about what's happened to his family. "Our conversation is at a functional level. I try to make friends with him. I try to make him confident when he sees me," he said. "And I have an absolutely certain way of producing this glorious smile that he has by offering him a chocolate bar."
BBC News
4 days 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.
Times of Oman
26-05-2025
- Health
- Times of Oman
Gaza: 9 children of doctor couple killed in Israeli strike
Gaza's civil defense agency said an Israeli strike in the southern city of Khan Younis on Friday killed nine of the 10 children of a married doctor couple. Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said Saturday that civil defense "crews transported the bodies of nine child martyrs, some of them charred, from the home of Dr. Hamdi al-Najjar and his wife, Dr. Alaa al-Najjar, all of whom were their children." In a statement, Israel's military said it struck suspects operating from a structure near to its forces and described the area of Khan Younis as a "dangerous war zone." The military said it had evacuated civilians from the area and that "the claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review." What do we know about the incident? Alaa al-Najjar, a pediatrician at Nasser Hospital, was on duty when she ran home and found her family's house on fire, Ahmad al-Farra, head of the hospital's pediatrics department told the Associated Press. Muneer Alboursh, director general of the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, said on X that the strike happened shortly after Hamdi Al-Najjar drove his wife to work. "Just minutes after returning home, a missile struck their house," he said, adding the father was "in intensive care." Farra said that the couple's only surviving child, an 11-year-old son, was in critical condition after the strike. The dead children ranged in age from seven months to 12 years old.
Telegraph
25-05-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
Israeli air strike kills nine of Gaza doctor's 10 children
An Israeli air strike on a family home in southern Gaza killed nine siblings on Friday, leaving their 11-year-old brother as the only surviving child. The children, aged 12 and under, were those of Dr Alaa al-Najjar, who was at work when she received the news, according to Ali al-Najjar, her brother-in-law. After rushing back to her family home, she witnessed the charred bodies of four of her children being pulled out the rubble. 'They weren't just burned, they were roasted. No face, no hands, no back,' said Mr Najjar, who was also helping at the scene. The tragedy comes as Israel's relationship with its allies plunges to new lows since it began its war in Gaza. France, the UK and Canada have in recent weeks issued their strongest condemnation yet for the brutality of Israel's offensive, while Donald Trump's decision to avoid visiting Israel on a trip to the Middle East suggests he is also losing patience with the Israeli leader. Friday's attack happened in the Khan Younis minutes after Dr Hamdi al-Najjar, their father, returned from driving their mother to work at the city's Nasser Hospital, according to Ali al-Najjar, Hamdi's brother. Dr Hamdi Najjar, also a doctor at the hospital, was critically wounded with a head injury. Ahmad al-Farra, the head of the hospital's paediatrics department, said: 'It is unbelievable. 'You can't imagine the shock that [Dr Najjar] had when she heard about that [attack]. But up until now, she is trying to be near her son and her husband to survive.' Adam, the surviving child, 11, underwent surgery for severe injuries including lacerations and his left arm that was nearly severed, said Graeme Groom, a British surgeon who operated on the boy. 'His left arm was just about hanging off, he was covered in fragment injuries,' Mr Groom said, adding that Adam was 'quite small' for his age. '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.' Mr Groom said in an interview with the BBC: 'Our little boy could survive, but we don't know about his father.' Colleagues of the couple told media outlets that the family had no ties to Hamas. Mr Groom said he had been told the father had 'no political and no military connections and doesn't seem to be prominent on social media'. Dr Hamdi Najjar was also seriously wounded and suffered what Mr Groom described as a 'penetrating injury to his head'. Hospital officials said both the father and surviving son were injured but alive. A spokesman for Gaza's Hamas-run civil defence, said that rescue teams had found eight bodies and several injured people after a strike on the al-Najjar family home near a petrol station. A hospital first reported on Facebook that eight children were killed, then later said the number had risen to nine. Dr Youssef Abu al-Rish, speaking for the Hamas-run health ministry, said he saw Dr Alaa Najjar in the operating room waiting for news about her surviving son and tried to comfort her. Youssef al-Najjar, a relative to the family, said in an interview: 'Enough. Have mercy on us. We plead to all countries, the international community, the people, Hamas, and all factions to have mercy. 'We are exhausted from displacement and hunger.' The Israel Defence Forces said its aircraft had struck 'a number of suspects who were identified operating from a structure adjacent to IDF troops in the area of Khan Younis'. The military added 'the claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review'. In a statement, the IDF said the Khan Younis area was 'a dangerous war zone' and that it had evacuated civilians from the area before beginning operations for their safety. Hamas described the air strike as 'a horrific massacre'. Francesca Albanese, the UN's special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, called the attack part of a 'distinguishable sadistic pattern of the new phase of the genocide'. Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, warned that Gaza is facing what could be the 'cruellest phase' of the war and criticised Israel's restrictions on aid. Israel had blocked food, fuel, medicine and other supplies from entering Gaza for nearly three months, worsening the humanitarian crisis for 2.3 million Palestinians. The country partially lifted the blockade last week, with 83 trucks carrying flour, food, medical equipment and pharmaceutical drugs entering Gaza on Friday. However, the UN has repeatedly said the amount of aid delivered into Gaza has been insufficient, calling for 500 to 600 trucks daily compared to current levels.
Japan Times
25-05-2025
- Health
- Japan Times
Rescuers say nine children of Gaza doctor couple killed in Israeli strike
Gaza's civil defense agency said Saturday that an Israeli strike in the southern city of Khan Younis killed nine children of a pair of married doctors, with the Israeli army saying it was reviewing the reports. Israel has stepped up its campaign in Gaza in recent days, drawing international criticism as well as calls to allow in more supplies after it partially eased a total blockade on aid imposed on March 2. Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the agency had retrieved "the bodies of nine child martyrs, some of them charred, from the home of Dr. Hamdi al-Najjar and his wife, Dr. Alaa al-Najjar, all of whom were their children." He added that Hamdi al-Najjar and another son, Adam, were also seriously wounded in the strike on Friday. A medical source at Nasser Hospital, where Alaa al-Najjar works, gave Adam's age as 10 years old. Footage of the aftermath released by the civil defense agency showed rescuers recovering badly burned remains from the damaged home. Asked about the incident, the Israeli military said it had "struck a number of suspects who were identified operating from a structure" near its troops. "The Khan Younis area is a dangerous warzone," it added. "The claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review." The army had issued an evacuation warning for the city on Monday. The children's funeral took place at Nasser Hospital. Muneer Alboursh, director general of the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, said on X that the strike happened shortly after Hamdi Al-Najjar returned home from driving his wife to work. "This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain," he said, accusing Israel of "wiping out entire families." Bassal said that Israeli strikes killed at least 15 people on Saturday across Gaza. He said the dead included a couple who were killed with their two young children in a predawn strike on a house in the Amal quarter of Khan Younis. To the west of the city, at least five people were killed by a drone strike on a crowd of people that had gathered to wait for aid trucks, he added. At Nasser Hospital, tearful mourners gathered Saturday around white-shrouded bodies outside. "Suddenly, a missile from an F-16 destroyed the entire house, and all of them were civilians — my sister, her husband and their children," said Wissam Al-Madhoun. "What did this child do to (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu?" A Palestinian woman shows photos of the children of the al-Najjar family who were killed in an Israeli strike, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday. | Reuters In a statement, the military said that over the past day the air force had struck more than 100 targets across the territory. Israel resumed operations in Gaza on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire. Gaza's health ministry said Saturday that at least 3,747 people had been killed in the territory since then, taking the war's overall toll to 53,901, mostly civilians. United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said on Friday that Palestinians were enduring "the cruelest phase" of the war in Gaza, where Israel's lengthy blockade has led to widespread shortages of food and medicine. Limited aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip restarted on Monday for the first time since March 2. The Gaza City municipality, meanwhile, warned Saturday of "a potential large-scale water crisis" due to a lack of supplies needed to repair damaged infrastructure. Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official figures. Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead. Demonstrators gathered yet again in Tel Aviv on Saturday night for their regular protest calling for the captives' freedom, carrying a giant banner that read "Save the hostages, end the war." "We want the war to end now because we see ... that the war will not lead to the release of the hostages, and that it will bring more death, more misery on both sides," demonstrator Jonathan Adereth said. Early Saturday morning, Israel's National Cyber Directorate said it had received "numerous inquiries" regarding citizens "receiving phone calls in which recordings are played featuring the voice of a hostage, sounds of explosions and screams." Israeli media said the calls featured audio apparently taken from a video of hostage Yosef Haim Ohana published by Hamas earlier this month. "This is an attempt to sow panic and confusion among the public," the directorate said of the calls, adding "the matter is under investigation."
