CNN
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Dr. Alaa al-Najjar left her ten children at home on Friday when she went to work in the emergency room at the Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza.
Hours later, the bodies of seven children – most of them badly burned – arrived at the hospital, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. They were Dr. Najjar’s own children, killed in an Israeli airstrike on her family’s home, Gaza Civil Defense said. The bodies of two more of her children – a 7-month-old and a 12-year-old who authorities presume to be dead – remain missing.
Only one of her ten children, 11-year-old Adam, survived. Dr. Najjar’s husband Hamdi, himself a doctor, was also badly injured in the strike.
Civil defense and the health ministry say that the family’s home, in a neighborhood of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, was targeted by an Israeli airstrike.
In response to a CNN request for comment, the Israeli military said aircraft had “struck a number of suspects who were identified operating from a structure adjacent to IDF troops in the area of Khan Younis.” It said it was reviewing the claim civilians had been killed.
Israel’s military chief Eyal Zamir went to Khan Younis on Sunday, according to a statement from the IDF.
“Hamas is under immense pressure—it has lost most of its assets and its command and control. We will deploy every tool at our disposal to bring the hostages home, dismantle Hamas, and dismantle its rule,” Zamir told troops, adding that the the military needs to now take down Hamas’ Khan Younis brigade.
Gaza Civil Defense published graphic video from the scene of the strike. It showed medics lifting an injured man onto a stretcher as other first responders try to extinguish a fire engulfing the house. They recover the charred remains of several children from the debris and wrap them in white sheets.
Dr. Sahar al-Najjar, a niece, told CNN that Hamdi, 38, had dropped his wife at the hospital and gone to get food for his children. When he returned, he witnessed a missile strike on their home that failed to detonate. He rushed inside to rescue his children but was hit by a second Israeli strike.
“My father went to rescue Uncle Hamdi but found Adam on the street and took him to the hospital. Uncle Hamdi was taken by civil defense, and the rest of the children were all charred,” she said.
Sahar said Dr. Alaa broke down when she showed the last bottle of breast milk she had expressed for her infant daughter, Sidra, whose body remains missing.
“She told me today that her chest aches so much as she was breastfeeding,” Sahar said on Sunday. “Every day at work, Dr. Alaa pumped milk to provide for Sidra, and today she showed me the last bottle she prepared for her.”
“Dr. Alaa can barely speak. If you could see her face, you would understand her pain. She is only praying for her son and husband to recover.”
When Adam, the sole surviving child, came out of the operating room, he called out for his sister Eve, saying, “There’s blood on the tree.” One of Adam’s arms is severely injured, and he will need another surgery in a few days. His father, Hamdi, remains in critical condition.
In a condolence message to Dr. Najjar, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Israeli-occupied West Bank said she will always be remembered as “the steadfast Palestinian woman and the noble doctor who heals the wounds of others while bearing her own pain in silence.”
“This horrific crime is not an isolated incident, but part of a systematic targeting of medical personnel and institutions, aimed at breaking the will of those standing steadfast in Gaza,” it said.
Munir al-Boursh, Director-General of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, said that Dr. Najjar’s husband had just returned home when the home was struck.
“Nine of their children were killed: Yahya, Rakan, Raslan, Gebran, Eve, Rival, Sayden, Luqman, and Sidra,” Boursh posted on X.
“This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain. In Gaza, it is not only healthcare workers who are targeted—Israel’s aggression goes further, wiping out entire families,” Boursh said.
Ahmad al-Farra, a doctor at the Nasser Medical Complex, told CNN that Dr. Najjar continued to work despite losing her children, while periodically checking on the condition of her husband and Adam.
Youssef Abu al-Reesh, a senior official at the Health Ministry, said Dr. Najjar had left her children at home to “fulfill her duty and her calling toward all those sick children who have no place but Nasser Hospital.”
Reesh said that when he arrived at the hospital, he had seen her “standing tall, calm, patient, composed, with eyes full of acceptance. You could hear nothing from her but quiet murmurs of (glorification of God) and (seeking forgiveness).”
Dr. Najjar, 38, is a pediatrician, but like most doctors in Gaza, she has been working in the emergency room during Israel’s onslaught on the territory.
As southern Gaza comes under renewed attack, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Sunday that two of its team members were killed in a strike on their home in Khan Younis on Saturday. CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment on the strike.
“Their killing points to the intolerable civilian death toll in Gaza,” the ICRC said in a statement posted to X.
This story has been updated.
This article has been corrected to reflect the age of one of Dr. Alaa al-Najjar’s two missing children, who are believed to be dead.
