Palestinian doctor Alaa al-Najjar has spent her life caring for the Strip’s sick and wounded children as a pediatric specialist at al-Tahrir Hospital in Gaza.
On Friday, she lost nine of her own.
An Israeli airstrike struck her home in Khan Younis, killing nearly her entire family, another unbearable blow in a conflict where grief compounds daily, and where Israel’s declared intent to seize full control of Gaza marches forward amid the rising death toll.
Yahya, 12, Eve, 9, Rival, 5, Sadeen, 3, Rakan, 10, Ruslan, 7, Jibran, 8, Luqman, 2, and Sedar, not yet one year old, died in the strike on Najjar’s home, according to hospital officials.
Video provided by Gaza’s Civil Defense showed a tiny charred body zipped up inside a bag. Sedar’s remains were never found.
“We couldn’t find any trace of him,” a civil defense worker said.
One of Dr. Najjar’s children and her husband, also a physician, survived with injuries. Dr. Graeme Groom, a British surgeon working in the hospital, told the BBC on Saturday that he had operated on 11-year-old Adam.
“Our little boy could survive, but we don’t know about his father,” he said.
The Israeli military said its “aircraft struck a number of suspects who were identified operating from a structure adjacent to IDF troops in the area of Khan Younis,” and that it evacuated civilians from the area.
“The claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review,” it said.
The heartbreak encapsulated by one family’s loss underscores a conflict where violence shows no signs of abating, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed last week that the military is “moving toward full control” of the Gaza Strip.
According to the Times of Israel, Netanyahu told a press conference last week the only way the assault will end is if “Gaza is totally disarmed; and we carry out the Trump plan,” referring to President Donald Trump’s vision to redevelop the territory into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
News of the deaths of al-Najjar’s family and warnings of starvation in Gaza have intensified domestic and international pressure on Israel for Netanyahu’s government to change course in the enclave, where 53,000 people have been killed and many more have been maimed, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Inside Israel, thousands gathered across the country Saturday night at demonstrations, as relatives of the remaining captives begged the government to agree to a deal that would secure their return.
Fifty-eight hostages are thought to remain in Gaza after Hamas carried out its terror attack on Oct. 7, 2023, when 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli counts.
The Israeli government has publicly confirmed the deaths of 35, leaving 23 hostages believed to still be alive.
Naama Levy, one of five IDF soldiers freed in the January ceasefire, addressed the crowd at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv on Saturday, recalling the terror of Israeli airstrikes while she was in captivity.
“I was convinced every single time that I was finished, and it’s also what put me in the greatest danger,” she said, recalling the moment a bomb collapsed part of the house she was being held in. “The wall I was leaning on didn’t collapse, and that’s what saved me.”
The United Kingdom, France, and Canada called Israel’s latest escalation in Gaza as “wholly disproportionate,” referring to the renewed offensive.
They also condemned “the abhorrent language used recently by members of the Israeli government, threatening that, in their despair at the destruction of Gaza, civilians will start to relocate.”
Netanyahu lashed out on X at the joint statement from his Western allies, calling it “a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel,” referring to the October 7 attacks.
Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar said there was a “direct line” between those speaking against Israel’s actions in Gaza, which he calls “blood libels,” and the killings of two Israeli embassy officials in Washington D.C. last week
“This incitement is also done by leaders and officials of many countries and international organizations, especially from Europe,” he said.
Israel allowed humanitarian aid into Gaza last week, citing “practical and diplomatic” reasons. But United Nations General Secretary Antonio Guterres said last week that so far Israel had only authorized for Gaza what “amounts to a teaspoon of aid when a flood of assistance is required.”
“Without rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access, more people will die — and the long-term consequences on the entire population will be profound,” he told reporters.
