Pediatrician loses 9 of her children in Israeli airstrike while on duty
Children arrived at hospital in horrific condition -- charred, dismembered, some without heads, says relative
GAZA CITY, Palestine/ISTANBUL
Dr. Alaa Al-Najjar never imagined that her farewell to her 10 children on Friday would be the last.
While she was tending to wounded children who had narrowly survived Israeli missile strikes, the charred and dismembered bodies of her own were being transferred one by one to the morgue at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis in southern Gaza -- some without heads.
The pediatrician, who had saved countless children during months of a genocidal war propagated by Israel, stood helpless because of the tragedy of her own children, unable to save them or gather their remains after an Israeli missile tore through their home in the Qizan Al-Najjar area in eastern Khan Younis.
The missile, launched by Israel with advanced precision-targeting technology capable of identifying everyone inside a home, struck where her 10 children and husband, Dr. Hamdi Al-Najjar, were staying.
The atrocity came three days after Moshe Feiglin, leader of the far-right Israeli “Zehut” party, publicly demanded that Tel Aviv “eliminate” children and infants in Gaza. The former Knesset member from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, said: “Every child, every baby in Gaza is an enemy.”
The Nasser Medical Complex cited Gaza’s Deputy Health Minister Youssef Abu al-Rish on Facebook, who said Al-Najjar, devastated by the loss of nine of her children, stood outside the operating room awaiting the fate of her sole surviving child and her husband.
Deliberate killing
Dr, Suheir Al-Najjar, the niece of Dr. Hamdi Al-Najjar, told Anadolu that Israel deliberately targeted the home Friday, initially striking it with a dud missile, followed minutes later by another that exploded and leveled the house -- giving no one inside a chance to escape.
She said the army, with its technology, knew that the house sheltered 10 children, the oldest 12, the youngest just 6 months, and a doctor providing humanitarian services, but chose to bomb it.
She explained with a voice full of grief that one child survived the brutal strike and is in critical condition in the ICU, alongside his father.
She confirmed that the children arrived at the hospital in horrific condition -- charred, dismembered, some without heads.
Dr. Suheir Al-Najjar noted that the family could not bid the children farewell or kiss them a last time because of the state of the remains.
She added that civil defense teams managed to retrieve seven bodies, while two remain under the rubble of their home.
Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing more than 53,900 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.�
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
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