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

A Palestinian doctor whose children were killed in an Israeli air raid in Gaza on 23 May died of injuries in the same attack, say health officials.

Dr. Hamdi al-Najjar, 40, had just returned from dropping his wife, Dr. Alaa al-Najjar, finished in the Nasser Hospital, where the couple both worked, When their house was beaten in Khan Younis. Nine of their children were killed, while the 10th was seriously injured.

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

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

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

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

Hamdi suffered considerable injuries to his brain, lungs, right arm and kidney in the strike, Dr. Milena Angelova-Chee, a Bulgarian doctor who worked in the Nasser Hospital, told the BBC last week.

Graeme Groom, a British surgeon who worked in the hospital who operated in the surviving son, Adam, told the BBC that it was “unbearably cruel” that his mother Alaa, who for years took care of children as a pediatrician, could almost lose her own strike in a single strike.

He said that Adam’s “left arm only hangs, he was covered with fragment injuries and he had several substantial cracks.”

“Because both parents are doctors, he seemed to be one of the privileged group in Gaza, but while we lifted him on the operating table, he felt much younger than 11.”

The Italian government offered on Thursday to treat Adam after a profession by his uncle, Dr. Ali Al-Najjar, who said the La Repubblica newspaper in Italy that the Nasser hospital was poorly equipped to treat him.

“He must be taken away immediately, to a real hospital, outside 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,” said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement, adding that it studied the feasibility of the proposal.

At the time, the IDF said in response to reports of the strike that “an aircraft struck several suspects who was identified by IDF troops as active in a building near Khan Younis, a dangerous battle zone that was evacuated to citizens for their protection.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the cross -border attack of Hamas on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were held hostage.

At least 54,418 people were killed in Gaza during the war, according to the Hamas-Runned Health Minister of the territory.