Dr. Alaa al-Najjar, one of Gaza’s last remaining pediatricians, has now lost her husband, Dr. Hamdi al-Najjar, who succumbed on Sunday to critical injuries sustained in a brutal Israeli airstrike on their home in southern Gaza two weeks ago.

Sad, sad news. Dr. Alaa al-Najjar’s husband, Dr. Hamdi al-Najjar, has just succumbed to his injuries. Dr. Hamdi al-Najjar died now along with his 9 children. pic.twitter.com/i3wBRaIPUo

— Mosab Abu Toha (@MosabAbuToha) May 31, 2025

The funeral of Dr. Hamdi Al-Najjar took place today. He was the husband of Dr. Alaa Al-Najjar, the Palestinian mother who lost all nine of her children in an Israeli bombing. pic.twitter.com/4xv0hx1c2S

— TIMES OF GAZA (@Timesofgaza) June 1, 2025

The strike also killed nine of their ten children, leaving behind a scene of devastation that has come to symbolize the unbearable cost of the Israeli war on Gaza.

On the morning of May 25, Dr. Alaa left for work at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis. Her husband, Hamdi, drove her as he did every day. That shift, treating Gaza’s war-wounded children, began like countless others. But within hours, the emergency room where she worked would receive not only the injured, but the remains of her own family.

An Israeli airstrike had struck their home in Khan Younis early that morning. The bodies of seven of her children were brought to the hospital, where she stood in her white coat. Two others, including six-month-old Sayden, were later pulled from the rubble. Only one child, Adam, survived the bombing with critical injuries. He was hospitalized alongside his father, who has now passed away.

These are the children of Dr. Alaa and Dr. Hamdi Al Najjar.

9 of their 10 children were killed in an Israeli air strike in southern Gaza.

Gaza’s Civil Defence teams published video showing their charred bodies getting recovered from the under the rubble. pic.twitter.com/HaTpYqxJnG

— Hamdah Salhut (@hamdahsalhut) May 24, 2025

The Ministry of Health in Gaza confirmed the names of the nine children killed: Yahya, Rakan, Raslan, Jubran, Eve, Rivan, Sayden, Luqman, and Sidra, the eldest just 12 years old.

Commenting on the tragedy, Dr. Munir al-Bursh, Director General of Gaza’s Health Ministry, said at the time, “Words fail to capture the scale of this pain. In Gaza, it is not only doctors being targeted. The Israeli occupation persists in its crimes by obliterating entire families.”

Dr. al-Bursh added that the attack is part of a wider campaign in which healthcare workers are being targeted not only at their workplaces, but in their homes, "striking at the heart of their families and futures.”

Grief inside the emergency room

Dr. Alaa stood in silence before the bodies of her children, shrouded in white, brought into the hospital where she had dedicated years of her life to saving others. In what should have been a place of healing, she was forced to mourn everything she held dear.

“All the children of Gaza are my children,” she said quietly. “But these were my life.”

Her words reflect the heartbreak of a population enduring unimaginable suffering under constant bombardment.

Footage released by Gaza’s Health Ministry and verified by international outlets shows dismembered and burned bodies being pulled from the rubble of the Najjar home, located near a petrol station. Flames engulfed what remained, as rescuers searched for survivors in the ash and debris.

This was no isolated tragedy. It is a chilling portrait of what tens of thousands of families in Gaza are enduring: displacement, starvation, and the constant threat of death from above.

Despite her profound grief, Dr. Alaa al-Najjar continued to serve. The hospital where she works remains one of the few partially functioning facilities in the Strip. In the same halls where she once walked as a healer, she now walks as a bereaved mother.

This war, now in its 600th day, has killed over 53,000 Palestinians, the majority of them women and children. For Dr. Alaa, the loss is painfully personal. She has given not only her service, but nearly everything she loved.

I will hold my kids tonight, and shake with anger. Dr. Alaa Elnajjar left her home this morning in Gaza to save other kids lives. 9 of her 10 kids arrived to her charred in body bags, and her 1 surviving child barely alive. May Gods mercy be upon her and her family, and may His… pic.twitter.com/hqvvSnu4kD

— Dr. Omar Suleiman (@omarsuleiman) May 25, 2025

Her story is one of unthinkable loss, but also courage and resilience. For any parent, it is the ultimate nightmare, yet in Gaza, under the ongoing Israeli genocide, it has become a daily reality, unfolding without accountability.