A Palestinian paediatrician received the charred bodies of seven of her children while on duty after an Israeli strike hit her home in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.
Dr Alaa al-Najjar, a paediatric specialist at al-Tahrir hospital within the Nasser Medical Complex, was treating victims of ongoing Israeli attacks across the strip on Friday when she was shocked to find her own children and husband brought into the hospital.
The children – the eldest aged 13 and the youngest just six months – were severely burned in the bombing.
Shortly before the strike, Najjar had left for work with her husband, Hamdi al-Najjar, who then returned home.
Not long after, an Israeli bombardment struck their house in the Qizan al-Najjar area in southern Khan Younis, killing nine of their 10 children and wounding the 10th.
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Najjar’s husband, who sustained serious injuries, remains in intensive care.
Footage released by the Palestinian Civil Defence showed rescue crews pulling the children’s bodies from the rubble as flames still engulfed the family’s home.
Hampered by a lack of proper equipment and the vast scale of destruction, civil defence workers could be heard calling into the rubble, desperately searching for signs of life.
Civil defence teams reported that seven bodies were recovered and transferred to Nasser hospital, where their mother works.
Two others, including the six-month-old baby, remain trapped under the rubble.
The children were identified as Yahya, Rakan, Ruslan, Jubran, Eve, Revan, Sayden, Luqman and Sidra.
‘The children were completely charred’
Ali al-Najjar rushed to the site as soon as he heard his brother’s home had been hit.
“Someone called us and said the house had been bombed. I rushed there even before the civil defence arrived,” he told Middle East Eye.
When he reached the scene, he found his brother, Hamdi al-Najjar, lying motionless on the ground, with his son beside him. The home was engulfed in flames.
‘Four of her children were pulled out, charred, right in front of her eyes’
– Ali al-Najjar, brother in law
“The children were completely charred,” he said. “I carried my nephew Adam and my injured cousin and rushed them to the hospital.”
Moments later, he returned to the burning home—only to see his sister-in-law, the children’s mother, arrive in horror. “She had run on foot from the hospital to the house.”
“Four of her children were pulled out, charred, right in front of her eyes,” he said.
Ali described the ongoing agony of not knowing the fate of two missing children. “Seven children were pulled from under the rubble, and two—Yahya, 13, and Sidra, just six months old—are still missing. We cannot find them.”
He said civil defence teams resumed the search the next morning but found nothing. “Their mother cannot even identify the bodies, the children are so badly burned she cannot tell who is who.”
Ali questioned the reason behind the strike. “I don’t know why they were targeted. Why would they target my brother? There’s no reason, unless it was because his wife is a doctor.”
‘Steadfast woman’
Najjar insisted on returning to work shortly after giving birth to her youngest child six months ago, determined to treat child victims amid relentless attacks and a dire shortage of medical staff.
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In a testimony given to Middle East Eye, Dr Yousef Abu al-Rish, undersecretary of the Palestinian health ministry, said: “I learned that our colleague, Dr Alaa al-Najjar, was standing in front of the surgery room, waiting for any news about her son – the only surviving child out of 10. I rushed there, sensing I was about to witness a unique example of humanity: a doctor who left her own children behind in Gaza, a place where even attempting to describe the suffering only deepens the anguish.
“She left them to fulfil her duty to all the sick children who have nowhere else to turn but Nasser hospital, a place choking with the cries of innocent souls.
“There were men and women lined up, their faces clouded with confusion. I scanned the anxious faces and immediately recognised the most devastated expression. I began searching for words to comfort her, but she pointed to another woman.
“Calm, patient and filled with faith – that was Dr Alaa al-Najjar. The last thing I expected was that this steadfast woman was the one who lost her children.”
The reality of healthcare workers
According to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, at least 1,400 healthcare professionals have been killed in Israeli attacks since 7 October 2023.
“This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain,” Dr Munir al-Bursh, director general of the Palestinian ministry of health, said in a post on X, commenting on the attack.
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“In Gaza, it is not only healthcare workers who are targeted. Israel’s aggression goes further, wiping out entire families.”
In addition, at least 111 civil defence workers have also been killed.
On Thursday, the health ministry reported that at least 53,822 Palestinians – including 16,503 children – have been killed in ongoing Israeli attacks across the blockaded Strip.
Among the children killed, 916 were under one year old; 4,365 were aged one to five; 6,101 were between six and 12; and 5,124 were aged 13 to 17.
According to the health ministry and the civil defence, thousands more remain missing and are presumed dead beneath the rubble.
