Gaza doctor whose nine children were killed in Israeli strike dies from injuries

JERUSALEM — A Palestinian doctor whose children were killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza on 23 May has died from injuries sustained in the same attack, health officials say.

Dr Hamdi al-Najjar, 40, had just returned from dropping his wife, Dr Alaa al-Najjar, off at Nasser Hospital, where the couple both worked, when their home in Khan Younis was struck. Nine of their children were killed, while the 10th was severely injured.

Hamdi was treated in hospital for brain and internal injuries but died on Saturday. Alaa and their 11-year-old son Adam, who remains in hospital, are the sole remaining survivors of the family.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said at the time that the incident was being reviewed.

The couple founded a private medical compound in Khan Younis, of which Hamdi was the head. His brother, Dr Ali al-Najjar, described him as a loving father who would tend to poorer patients for free.

Their children Yahya, Rakan, Ruslan, Jubran, Eve, Rivan, Saydeen, Luqman and Sidra were all killed in the attack. The eldest was 12 years old and the youngest six months, according to local media.

Hamdi sustained significant injuries to his brain, lungs, right arm, and kidney in the strike, Dr Milena Angelova-Chee, a Bulgarian doctor working at Nasser hospital, said last week.

Graeme Groom, a British surgeon working in the hospital who operated on the surviving son, Adam, told the BBC that it was "unbearably cruel" that his mother Alaa, who spent years caring for children as a paediatrician, could lose almost all her own in a single strike.

He said that Adam's "left arm was just about hanging off, he was covered in fragment injuries and he had several substantial lacerations."

"Since both his parents are doctors, he seemed to be among the privileged group within Gaza, but as we lifted him onto the operating table, he felt much younger than 11."

Italy's government on Thursday offered to treat Adam after an appeal from his uncle, Dr Ali al-Najjar, who told Italy's La Repubblica newspaper that the Nasser hospital was ill-equipped to treat him.

"He needs to be taken away immediately, to a real hospital, outside of the Gaza Strip. I beg the Italian government to do something, take him, Italians save him," he said.

"The Italian government has expressed its willingness to transfer the seriously injured boy to Italy," the foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that it was studying the feasibility of the proposal.

At the time, the IDF said in response to reports of the strike that "an aircraft struck several suspects identified by IDF forces as operating in a building near troops in the Khan Younis area, a dangerous combat zone that had been evacuated of civilians in advance for their protection. The claim of harm to uninvolved individuals is being reviewed."

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas's cross-border attack on Oct 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 54,418 people have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

SAUDI GAZETTE