“The last medical farewell in Gaza before the killing of nine children and the air strike

In the early hours of Friday, as he did every day, Dr. Ala al-Najar said goodbye to her 10 children before leaving home. The youngest, Sayden, six months, was still asleep. And like every day, with the war that broke out in Gaza and the Israeli attacks that fell just a few meters from her neighborhood at Khan Yunis, Najjar was worried about leaving him alone at home.

But Najjar, 35, had little choice. One of the doctors in Gaza, a respected pediatric at the Nasser medical complex, had to go to work to care for wounded babies who had barely survived the Israeli attacks. She could never have imagined that she goodbye to her family would be the last.

A few hours later, the burned bodies of her seven children, killed by an Israeli air strike on KhanYounis, arrived at her hospital. Two other bodies, including Sayden's, remained in ruins. Of her 10 children, only one had survived, along with their father, Hamdi al-Najjar, 40, also a doctor. They're both in the hospital now.

The “is one of the most painful tragedies since the beginning of the 1998x1 conflict, said Mohammed Sacker, the head of the infirmary at the Nasser Hospital. And there happened to a pediatric who cost his life to save the children, just to rob the amity in a moment of fire and deafening silence. ”

The images separated by Gaza Health Ministry director and verified by Guardian show the burned and broken bodies of children derived from the ruins of the Najjar building near a gas station, while the flames still included what was left of the family's house.

Ali al-Najjar, 50, Hamdi's older brother, the man of Ala, said: “When I heard the house was being bombed, I instinctively rushed toward my car and headed to the spot, as I knew my brother and his children were inside. When I arrived, I was shocked. I found my nephew Adam, who survived, lying on the street under the ruins. It was covered with soot, his clothes were almost torn, but his soul was still inside him. My brother was lying on the other side, flowing too much blood from his head and chest, and his arm was cut off. He was still breathing hard. ”

Ali called the medical team and took two survivors to the hospital. Then he began searching for his nine missing grandchildren and grandchildren.

The house was too hard to clean because the ceiling was on itself. I started looking around the house hoping to find one of the children because I assumed the bombing could have thrown out of the house”, he said. But then, unfortunately, the first burnt body appeared. After we completely fired the fire, we found the rest of them disabled and all were burned. ”

Ala al-Najyar rushed towards the site of the blast as rescue teams pulled the body of her daughter Revan from the ruins. With tears in her eyes, she begged the rescue teams to let her last hold it.

Its [Revan's] body was completely burned from the top, there was nothing left of its skin or meat,” said Ali. “Ende has two bodies of my brother's children we couldn't find: the oldest son, 12 years old, Yahya, and the six-month-old daughter, Sayden. ”

Najjar returned to the hospital to check on the condition of her son Adam, 11, and her husband. Sources at the Nasser hospital, who transferred children's bodies one by one to the morgue, said their mother was unable to identify them, since the burns were so severe.

The names of the children were Yahya, Racan, Ruslan, Jubran, Eve, Revan, Sayden, Luqman, and Cedar. “Ala went to the morgue, held her children in her arms, recited the Koran over them, and prayed for them”, Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, 53, director of the children's building at the Nasser medical complex. The other women around her collapsed from grief and anger, but Dr. Ala remained calm. God sent peace to his heart. After being buried, she went directly to check on her husband and son and began caring for them.”

Colleagues at the hospital described Najjar as a devoted, polite, ethical doctor capable of enduring great pressure, treating dozens of children and patients daily, and at the same time caring for a large family.

She was in constant concern for her children when she was in the hospital. When she heard that a house had been bombed in the Qizan al-Najjar district, her mother's heart felt that something was not going to”, Farra said.

After giving her last farewell to the lifeless bodies of her seven children, Ala went to her surviving child's department. Her husband suffered serious injuries to the brain and fractures caused by srapnali, along with wounds from scrapnelli and fractures in the chest. He was placed in a fan and equipped with medical tubes”, Farra said. Her son's condition was relatively better than his injuries ranged from moderate to severe. ”

Najjar's colleagues and friends said her children had Egyptian citizenship and that Ala and Hamdi were planning to leave for Egypt and register their children at Cairo's Al-Azhar University.

Israeli Defence Forces said: “Dje, an IDF aircraft hit a number of suspects who were identified by a structure attached to IDF troops in the Khan Youth area. Khan Youth area is a dangerous war zone. Before operations began there, the IDF evacuated civilians from this area for their safety. The claim regarding the damage to non-involved civilians is under consideration. ”

Gaza's Health Ministry says nearly 54,000 Palestinians, including 16,503 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks across the territory.