In one of the most harrowing tragedies to emerge from the ongoing Israeli offensive in Gaza, an airstrike has killed nine of the ten children of Dr. Alaa al-Najjar, a pediatric specialist at al-Tahrir Hospital in the Nasser Medical Complex. The strike, which hit her home in Khan Younis on Friday, occurred while she was treating victims of similar attacks.
Dr. Najjar, who has dedicated her career to saving the lives of children, was working at the hospital when she received the charred bodies of her own children. The eldest was just 12 years old. Her husband and one surviving child, 11 year old Adam, were critically injured.
British volunteer surgeon Graeme Groom, working alongside Najjar at the hospital, performed surgery on Adam. “His injuries were bad enough, but the background was worse,” Groom said. “Nine of his brothers and sisters were killed.”
Groom confirmed that both Dr. Najjar and her husband, also a physician at Nasser Hospital, had no political or military affiliations. “It is unimaginable,” he said.
Footage verified by the BBC and circulated by Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry shows the bodies of the children being pulled from the rubble near a petrol station. Eyewitnesses at the scene described the destruction as apocalyptic.
“This heinous crime clearly expresses the sadistic nature of the occupation,” Hamas said in a statement, calling the attack a “horrific massacre.”
The IDF responded on Saturday, stating that it had targeted “a number of suspects” operating near its troops in Khan Younis. “Before beginning operations there, the IDF evacuated civilians from this area for their own safety,” the statement read. “The claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review.”
International outrage is mounting. Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, condemned the airstrike as part of a “sadistic pattern of the new phase of the genocide.”
The past 24 hours have seen intensified strikes across Gaza, with more than 100 sites targeted, according to the IDF. The territory’s health ministry reported at least 79 deaths within a single day, with that number expected to rise.
Among the dead were 30 members of the Dardouna family, including a baby girl pulled from the rubble still wearing her pajamas, in an image shared by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mosab Abu Toha.
As the humanitarian crisis deepens, Israel faces growing pressure to allow more aid into Gaza. A recent letter obtained by the Associated Press suggests Israel may soon permit aid organizations to manage non-food relief through the newly proposed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, backed by the U.S. and Israel. The foundation is not yet operational.
For now, fuel, medicine, and most food supplies remain restricted, exacerbating the plight of 2.3 million Palestinians caught in a territory on the brink of famine.
In the corridors of Nasser Hospital, where Dr. Alaa al-Najjar once worked to heal children, grief now hangs heavy. As colleague Mohammed Saqer described, “She watched with her own eyes as the charred bodies of her children were pulled from the rubble while she was still on duty, saving others.”
