9 of Gaza doctor’s 10 children are killed in Israel’s latest strikes
Paediatrician Alaa Najjar, who was on duty at the time, ran home to find her home on fire and only her husband and one son, 11, still alive
The bodies of 79 people killed by Israeli strikes have been brought to hospitals in the past 24 hours, Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday – a toll that does not include hospitals in the battered north that it said are now inaccessible.
The dead over the past day in Israel’s renewed military offensive included nine of a doctor’s 10 children, horrified colleagues and the health ministry said.
Alaa Najjar, a paediatrician at Nasser Hospital, was on duty at the time and ran home to find her family’s house on fire, said Ahmad al-Farra, head of the hospital’s paediatric department.
Najjar’s husband was severely wounded and their only surviving child, an 11-year-old son, was in critical condition after Friday’s strike in the southern city of Khan Younis, Farra said.
The dead children ranged in age from seven months to 12 years old. Khalil Al-Dokran, a spokesperson for Gaza’s health ministry, said that two of the children remained under the rubble.
Israel’s military in a statement said it struck suspects operating from a structure next to its forces, and described the area of Khan Younis as a “dangerous war zone”. It said it had evacuated civilians from the area, and “the claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review”.