Tragedy Strikes Gaza Doctor's Family
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Palestinian pediatrician Dr. Alaa al-Najjar has spent her career saving children's lives at Gaza's Nasser Hospital. On Friday, while she was at work, an Israeli airstrike hit her home in Khan Younis, killing nine of her ten children.
The children ranged in age from less than 1 year old to 12 years: Yahya, 12; Eve, 9; Rival, 5; Sadeen, 3; Rakan, 10; Ruslan, 7; Jibran, 8; Luqman, 2; and Sedar, not yet 1 year old. Her husband Hamdi, also a physician, and their 11-year-old son Adam survived with serious injuries.
British surgeon Graeme Groom, who operated on Adam at Nasser Hospital, described the boy's condition as critical. "His left arm was just about hanging off, he was covered in fragment injuries and had several substantial lacerations," Dr. Groom told the BBC. "Our little boy could survive, but we don't know about his father," he added, noting that Hamdi sustained a severe head injury.
"It is unbearably cruel that a mother who spent years caring for children as a pediatrician could lose almost all her own in a single missile strike," Dr. Groom said.
The Israeli military stated its "aircraft struck a number of suspects who were identified operating from a structure adjacent to IDF troops in the area of Khan Younis," adding that "the claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review."
Video shared by Gaza's Civil Defense showed rescue workers recovering small charred bodies from the rubble. According to rescue workers, one child's remains were never found. "We couldn't find any trace of him," a Civil Defense worker said about baby Sedar.
A relative, Youssef al-Najjar, told AFP: "Enough! Have mercy on us! We plead to all countries, the international community, the people, Hamas, and all factions to have mercy on us. We are exhausted from the displacement and the hunger, enough!"
Dr. Alaa al-Najjar's tragedy comes amid intensified Israeli operations in southern Gaza, where civilian casualties continue to mount despite international calls for restraint and protection of civilians.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that people in Gaza were enduring what may be "the cruellest phase" of the war, with critical shortages of food, water, and medical supplies causing widespread suffering across the territory.
