![Relatives mourn as the bodies of 14 members of the same family, including 8 children, are brought to Nasser Medical Complex following an Israeli airstrike targeting residential areas in central Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, on May 23, 2025. [Hani Alshaer - Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AA-20250523-38058994-38058988-ISRAELI_AIRSTRIKE_KILLS_14_FAMILY_MEMBERS_INCLUDING_8_CHILDREN_IN_SOUTHERN_GAZA-1-1.jpg?fit=920%2C613&ssl=1)
Palestinian doctor Alaa al-Najjar, a paediatrician at the Nasser Medical Complex, was devastated by the arrival of the bodies and remains of nine of her children to the hospital where she works. They were burned to death in an Israeli air strike that targeted her family’s home in the Qizan al-Najjar area, south of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.
According to Civil Defence teams, yesterday, Friday, the bombing completely destroyed the family’s home and sparked a massive fire that consumed its interior. Crews recovered the bodies of nine martyrs, including eight charred children. Her husband, Dr Hamdi al-Najjar, was seriously injured and transferred to intensive care.
Eyewitnesses reported that Dr Al-Najjar collapsed upon identifying the remains of her children, aged between two and 12, after they arrived at the hospital.
Dr Munir Al-Barsh, Director General of the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, explained that Dr. Alaa has ten children, the eldest of whom is under 12 years old. She left the morning with her husband to go to work, but their home was targeted minutes after her husband returned.
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The bombing resulted in the deaths of children Yahya, Rakan, Raslan, Jubran, Eve, Rifan, Saydin, Luqman, and Sidra. The tenth child, Adam, survived with injuries.
Al-Barsh added, “This tragedy reflects the reality of medical personnel in Gaza. Health workers are not only targeted in their workplaces, but also in their homes, within their families. Words fail to describe the magnitude of the tragedy.”
This crime is part of a series of intensive Israeli attacks on Khan Yunis Governorate and other areas in the Gaza Strip over the past weeks, which have claimed the lives of hundreds, the majority of whom were women and children, amid growing international accusations of war crimes against civilians.
With American and European support, Israel has been committing genocide in the Gaza Strip since October, 2023, resulting in more than 175,000 Palestinian deaths and injuries, most of them children and women, in addition to more than 14,000 missing persons.
READ: Global parliamentarians call for immediate action to end starvation in Gaza
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