‘Sadistic pattern’ of genocide: UN condemns Israeli killing of Gaza doctor’s nine children
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has condemned Israel’s Friday airstrike on the home of Palestinian doctors Alaa and Hamdi Al-Najjar, which killed nine of their ten children.
Alaa Al-Najjar, a paediatrician at Nasser Hospital in Gaza, was on duty treating young patients when she learned nine of her children—aged 2 to 16—had been killed in an Israeli bombardment of their Khan Yunis home.
Rescue teams later retrieved the children’s bodies, eight of which were mutilated beyond recognition by the blast.
Commenting on a video published by Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian physician who volunteers in Palestine, Albanese said the attack represented a “distinguishable sadistic pattern of the new phase of the genocide”.
Two doctors go to work to assist others.Nine of their kids are killed by an Israeli missile targeting their home. Only surviving child, in critical conditions.
Targeting families in the still-standing buildings: distinguishable sadistic pattern of the new phase of the genocide. https://t.co/6tlylARKK5
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) May 24, 2025
The attack reduced the family’s residence to rubble and ignited fires across the surrounding area.
Alaa’s husband and one surviving child sustained injuries in the attack.
Israeli military forces systematically target civilian families, medical facilities, and healthcare personnel as part of its ongoing Genocide in Gaza.
Muneer Alboursh, director general of the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, says Israel has killed 12 health workers in the past week, many of them in targeted attacks on their homes.
He said Israel is “systematically” targeting medical staff and facilities, especially in the northern areas of Gaza, to destroy the health care system there and push people further south.
His remarks come days after Israel’s finance minister declared that the regime is now “finally” targeting what he called the “civilian structure of Hamas.”
Israel launched the campaign of genocide in Gaza on October 7, 2023. It has killed at least 53,800 Palestinians there so far, according to the health ministry of Gaza.
