While Dr. Alaa Al-Najjar was at work, on Friday, May 23, her house was bombarded by an Israeli strike in Khan Younès, south of Gaza. A few hours after the attack, the carbonized bodies of seven of their children arrived at the hospital where he worked as a pediatrician, while two others, lifeless, remained under the rubble, says The Guardian.
Among her ten children, only Adam survived, as well as her husband Hamdi Al-Najjar, 40, also a doctor.
“This is one of the most heartbreaking tragedies since the beginning of the conflict,” said Mohammed Saqer, nursing chief at Nasser Hospital in The Guardian.
While Israeli attacks intensify in the Palestinian territory, Dr. Alaa Al-Najjar and her husband are among the rare doctors who are still present in Gaza. “It happened to a pediatrician who dedicated his life to save the children and who was stolen from his own motherhood in a moment of slope and deafening silence,” added Mohammed Saqer.
“There was nothing left of his skin or his flesh”
Several images transmitted by the Palestinian civil defense show the help to get the bodies of children under the debris and place them in morgue bags. They were called Yahya, Rakan, Ruslan, Jubran, Eve, Revan, Sayden, Luqman and Sidra. His father and his brother Adam, living but unconscious, are transported on a stretcher.
When he knew the explosion, Ali Al-Najjar, the family’s uncle, hastened to the scene. “When I arrived, I was in shock. I found my nephew Adam, who had survived, lying on the road under the rubble. He was covered with soot, his clothes was almost torn, but his soul was still in him,” said the 50 -year -old man.
“My brother (Hamdi) was lying on the other side, bleeding abundantly with his head and chest, and the arm was cut. He still breathed with difficulty,” he continued.
When Alaea came to her place in turn, rescuers were extending the body of her daughter Revan from the debris. “His body was completely burned, there was nothing left of his skin or his flesh,” the uncle remembered painfully.
Hamdi al-Najjar, the father, and his son, only survivors, are still between life and death. According to Guardian’s information, man suffers from brain damage and many fractures. It was placed under the artificial respirator.
More than 50,000 dead
When asked about this strike, the Israeli army told AFP that one of his planes had “hit several people suspected of operating from an adjacent structure” to the soldiers in this area. An Israeli military spokesman said that information had been sent to the inhabitants who asked them to evacuate the city of Khan Younès, without specifying when the strike was going.
Since the October 7 attack, which has led to the death of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, according to an AFP count, Israel has multiplied its bombings in Gaza.
More than 53,939 people, mainly civil, including more than 16,000 children, were killed by the Israeli reprisal campaign, according to data from the Ministry of Hamas, considered reliable by the UN.
Source: BFM TV
