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Gaza’s civil defence agency said that an Israeli strike in the southern city of Khan Younis killed nine children of a pair of married doctors, with the Israeli army saying it was reviewing the reports.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the agency had retrieved “the bodies of nine child martyrs, some of them charred, from the home of Dr Hamdi al-Najjar and his wife, Dr Alaa al-Najjar, all of whom were their children”.
He added that Hamdi al-Najjar and another son, Adam, were also seriously wounded in the strike on Friday, and that the family was taken to Nasser Hospital.
Alaa al-Najjar, who works as a pediatrician at Nasser Hospital, was on her shift when she hurried home to discover her family’s house in flames, according to Ahmad al-Farra, who leads the hospital’s pediatric department, as reported by The Associated Press.
The dead children ranged in age from seven months to 12 years old, Khalil Al-Dokran, a spokesperson for Gaza’s health ministry, said.
Muneer Alboursh, director general of the health ministry in Gaza, said on X that the strike happened shortly after Hamdi Al-Najjar returned home from driving his wife to work.
“This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain,” he said, accusing Israel of “wiping out entire families”.
Footage of the aftermath released by the civil defence agency showed rescuers recovering badly burned remains from the damaged home.
Asked about the incident, the Israeli military said it had “struck a number of suspects who were identified operating from a structure” near its troops.
“The Khan Younis area is a dangerous warzone,” it added.
“The claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review.”
The army had issued an evacuation warning for the city on Monday.
The children’s funeral took place at Nasser Hospital, Agenge France-Presse news agency footage showed.
Fresh Israeli strikes continue in Gaza
Bassal told AFP that Israeli strikes since the early hours had killed at least 15 people across Gaza as of Saturday afternoon.
He said the dead included a couple killed with their two young children in a pre-dawn strike on a house in the Amal quarter of Khan Yunis.
To the west of the city, at least five people were killed by a drone strike on a crowd of people that had gathered to wait for aid trucks, he added.
At Nasser Hospital, tearful mourners gathered Saturday around white-shrouded bodies outside.
“Suddenly, a missile from an F-16 destroyed the entire house, and all of them were civilians — my sister, her husband and their children,” said Wissam Al-Madhoun.
“What did this child do to (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu?”
