Gaza doctor loses nine of her children while saving lives on the frontlines

Dubai: Dr. Alaa Al Najjar, a paediatrician at the Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza, has spent months tending to injured children in the chaos of war.

On Friday, she left her 10 children at home, kissed them goodbye, and walked into the hospital to begin another shift in the emergency ward.

Hours later, her colleagues wheeled in the charred and dismembered bodies of nine children. They were her own.

An Israeli airstrike had struck Dr. Al Najjar’s home in the Qizan Al Najjar neighborhood of Khan Younis, killing nine of her children.

The oldest was 12 years old. The youngest, just seven months, remains buried under rubble along with a two-year-old sibling, according to Gaza’s Civil Defense.

Only one child, 11-year-old Adam, survived, albeit critically injured. Her husband, Dr. Hamdi Al Najjar, also a physician, sustained a severe head wound and remains in intensive care.

The airstrike, which took place shortly after her husband returned home from dropping her at the hospital, has ignited a storm of grief, disbelief, and anger among Palestinians and international observers alike. Medical officials say the strike targeted the home without warning, in an area known to be residential.

“It is unbearably cruel,” said Dr. Graeme Groom, a British surgeon volunteering at the Nasser hospital. Dr. Groom operated on Adam and said the boy arrived with his left arm nearly severed, his body covered in shrapnel. “His mother spent her life saving children. She couldn’t save her own.”

The Israeli military said in a statement that its aircraft had targeted “a number of suspects” in Khan Younis and that the claim of civilian casualties was “under review.”

It said the area is an active war zone and had previously issued evacuation orders for civilians. Witnesses and Gaza’s health authorities, however, describe the home as a known residence, with no military presence.

Footage released by Gaza’s Civil Defense shows emergency workers lifting small, blackened bodies from the rubble and trying to extinguish flames engulfing the building. The children were so badly burned that family members could not recognize or properly bury them.

The strike came three days after Moshe Feiglin, an ultranationalist Israeli political figure and former Knesset member, called for the elimination of children in Gaza, referring to them as “enemies.”

The comments were widely condemned but underscored the rising dehumanization in Israel’s political discourse as the war enters its eighth month.

Since the conflict erupted in October 2023, Israeli bombardments have killed more than 53,900 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Israel maintains its operations are aimed at dismantling Hamas, but the scale and scope of the civilian toll have drawn sharp criticism.

Israel now faces genocide charges at the International Court of Justice, and its leaders are subject to arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court.

Dr. Muneer Al Bursh, Director-General of the Gaza Health Ministry, called Al Najjar family's killing a "deliberate targeting." He said the home was struck first with a dud missile, followed by a second that obliterated the structure minutes later.

“Israel knew this house sheltered 10 children and two doctors who had nothing to do with any fighting,” said Dr. Suheir Al Najjar, a relative and fellow physician. “They bombed it anyway.”

Dr. Alaa Al Najjar, 38, has continued working at the hospital despite the devastation, checking on her husband and son between tending to other wounded children. Her colleagues describe her as calm and composed, murmuring prayers under her breath.

“She stood tall, full of patience and surrender,” said Dr. Youssef Abu Al Rish, a senior health official. “She gave her children to God and returned to serve others.”

A surgeon at the hospital said she had not yet seen her surviving son after surgery. “We don’t know if the father will live,” said Dr. Groom. “She might lose everything.”

 -- Huda Ata is an independent writer based in the UAE