Israeli strikes kill Gaza doctor's 9 children

CAIRO — The bodies of 79 people killed by Israeli strikes have been brought to hospitals in the past 24 hours, Gaza's Health Ministry said on Saturday, a toll that does not include hospitals in the battered north that it said are now inaccessible.

Nine of a doctor's 10 children were among those killed in Israel's renewed military offensive, colleagues and the Health Ministry said.

Alaa al-Najjar, a pediatrician at Nasser Hospital, was on duty at the time and ran home to find her family's house on fire, Ahmad al-Farra, head of the hospital's pediatric department, told The Associated Press.

Najjar's husband, Hamdi al-Najjar, was severely wounded and their only surviving child, an 11-year-old son, was in critical condition after Friday's strike in the southern city of Khan Younis, Farra said.

The dead children ranged in age from 7 months to 12 years.

Suheir al-Najjar, the niece of Hamdi, told Turkiye's Anadolu news agency that civil defense teams managed to retrieve seven bodies, while two remain under the rubble of their home.

She said the Israeli military initially struck it with a dud missile, followed minutes later by another that exploded and leveled the house.

"They knew that inside were 10 children and two doctors. They knew, and they did it anyway."

She confirmed that the children arrived at the hospital in horrific condition — charred, dismembered, some without heads.

Munir al-Bursh, director general of the Health Ministry in Gaza, wrote on X: "This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain."

WAFA, the official news agency of the Palestinian Authority, commented on the "unbearable irony": the doctor who had spent months saving Gaza's children amid an ongoing Israeli campaign of extermination could do nothing to save her own.

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 war zone," it said. "The claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review."

Earlier on Saturday, a statement said Israel's air force struck more than 100 targets throughout Gaza over the past day.

The Health Ministry said the new deaths brought the toll in the 19-month-old conflict to 53,901.The ministry said 3,747 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel resumed the offensive on March 18.

Israel also imposed a blockade of Gaza and its more than 2 million people since early March. Last week, the first aid trucks entered the territory and began reaching Palestinians since the blockade began.

The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sought a new aid delivery and distribution system by a newly established United States-backed group, but the United Nations and partners have rejected it, saying it allows Israel to use food as a weapon and violates humanitarian principles.

Israel may now be changing its approach to let aid groups remain in charge of nonfood assistance, according to a letter obtained by the AP. Israel accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid but the UN and aid groups deny there is significant diversion.

Agencies via Xinhua