Hamas: Israeli strike killing nine of Gaza’s doctor children ‘horrific massacre’
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has denounced as “a horrific massacre” Israel’s airstrike on the home of Palestinian doctor Alaa Al-Najjar, which killed nine of her ten children.
Hamas made the remark in a statement on Saturday, a day after an Israeli airstrike on Gaza hit Alaa’s home in the southern city of Khan Yunis while she was on duty at her hospital.
“This heinous crime clearly expresses the sadistic nature of the occupation, and the level of the deep-rooted spirit of revenge that drives Netanyahu and his gang of murderers and human monsters,” Hamas said.
The resistance group further noted that Israel has been “deliberately targeting the medical personnel, civilians and their families in an attempt to break their will” since the start of the war on the besieged enclave.
Alaa, a paediatrician at Nasser Hospital in Gaza, was on duty treating victims of the Israeli regime’s ongoing attacks across Gaza when she learned nine of her children—aged 2 to 16—had been killed in an Israeli bombardment of their home in the Qizan al-Najjar area of Khan Yunis.
Rescue teams later retrieved the children’s bodies, eight of which were mutilated beyond recognition by the blast.
Shortly before the strike, Alaa had left for work with her husband, Hamdi al-Najjar, who then returned home.
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 their ongoing genocide in Gaza.
According to Muneer Alboursh, director general of the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, Israel has killed 12 health workers in the past week, many of them in targeted attacks on their homes.
Israel launched the campaign of genocide in Gaza on October 7, 2023. It has killed at least 53,900 Palestinians there so far, according to the health ministry of Gaza.
Israeli forces have also maintained a complete blockade on Gaza, shutting all border crossings and drastically restricting the entry of humanitarian aid, fuel, and food.
