The scene of Dr. Alaa Al-Najjar, a devoted Palestinian doctor, confronting the burnt bodies of her nine children is not a sequence from a tragic film. It’s a stark reality endured by the people of Gaza, caught between the death of conscience and humanity in the world.
The news of the martyrdom of nine children of a Palestinian doctor at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, located in the southern Gaza Strip, was among the most agonizing reports of the unimaginable suffering borne by the people of this enclave. This suffering unfolds amid nearly two years of genocidal war by the occupying regime against them, met with the shameful silence of the international community.
Nine Laughter Silenced in an Instant
On Friday night, in a single moment, the bodies of nine siblings—children of Dr. Alaa Al-Najjar and Dr. Hamdi Al-Najjar, two dedicated Palestinian doctors who, like all medical professionals in Gaza, fulfill their responsibilities to the injured and sick under the harshest conditions—arrived at Nasser Hospital, where their mother was tending to the wounded.
Nine of the family’s ten children, like all children in Gaza, were hit by a missile from the criminal enemy army, despite being innocent. They departed this world, their childhood dreams buried beneath the rubble. They were not just nine bodies; they were nine lives, nine laughs, nine aspirations, nine futures…
That Friday night, the children’s mother was at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, wearily wiping sweat from the foreheads of wounded children and cleaning blood from their faces, her heart heavy with sorrow and suffering. She had no idea she was about to witness the worst chapter of her life.
A Mother’s Hopes Annihilated in a Moment
At 8 PM, the charred bodies of several children, who had perished in a brutal attack by the Zionist army on a home in Qizan Al-Najjar in Khan Yunis, arrived at Nasser Medical Complex. This scene mirrored hundreds that Gaza’s medical staff witness daily, but one detail caught Dr. Alaa’s attention: a piece of cloth she recognized well, draped over the face of one of the children.
With trembling steps, the dedicated Palestinian doctor, a mother of ten, approached the burnt bodies of the children brought into the emergency department. She pulled back the cloth and gasped, crying out, “This is Yahya, my son!” She then rushed to the other bodies, trying to identify the faces of her children, completely incinerated by the bombardment. It was then that the full horror of the tragedy dawned on her. One by one, she called out the names of her children, who were her hopes for life: “Rakan, Raslan, Jibran, Hawa, Riwan, Saydeen, Luqman, and Sidra…”
Imagining such a moment is horrifying and inconceivable for any mother, indeed for any human being. Yet, these horrific scenes have become part of the painful daily life for all people in Gaza. Amidst this, medical professionals, who refuse to break down, endure the greatest suffering.
Dr. Hamdi Al-Najjar, the children’s father, is hospitalized in critical condition in the intensive care unit and is unaware of the fate of his children. Only their tenth child, Adam, has miraculously survived so far, though he too is clinging to life.
The Immense Pain of Gaza’s Dedicated Doctors
The medical staff at Nasser Medical Complex, like all hospitals in Gaza, are accustomed to receiving dozens of martyrs’ bodies daily, many of them children. However, they likely never imagined seeing their loyal colleague collapsing in the hospital corridors, screaming from the intensity of her grief. This tragedy reveals the immense suffering endured by Gaza’s medical personnel, where the brutal Zionist regime not only directly targets Gaza’s doctors but also includes their families in its target bank.
Certainly, the story of Dr. Alaa Al-Najjar and her children, who were massacred in an instant, is not a tragic novel. It is a new chapter in Gaza’s endless suffering, where no one can escape the fire and death—not doctors, not children, not even a mother’s dreams. Dr. Alaa did not just lose her children; a large part of her being was lost forever.
The horrific incident that befell Dr. Alaa Al-Najjar, a pediatrician at Al-Tahrir Hospital within the Nasser Medical Complex, ignited outrage among social media users and human rights activists. They asserted: “What we see in Gaza is not a scene from a tragic film; it is a bitter reality that repeats itself every day.”
A Missile That Buried Maternal and Childhood Dreams Under Rubble and Fire
Faiz Abu Shamaleh, a Palestinian academic and writer, posted on this matter: “In Gaza, there are incredible things and events that challenge the laws of nature. Dr. Alaa Al-Najjar nurtured her children for years, preparing them for a safe future. With maternal love and hope for the future, she had chosen beautiful and distinctive names for her children. Yet, she never imagined that all these dreams would be shattered by a single missile button pressed by a soldier of the brutal Zionist army.”
Children Who Have Become Numbers for the World
Ahmed Hijazi, a Palestinian activist, stated: “After the laughter of Dr. Alaa Al-Najjar‘s children was silenced, the bitter truth is once again reiterated: Gaza’s children have become mere numbers for the world. More than 18,000 children have repeatedly buried their dreams in the rubble of Gaza, and their laughter has been extinguished. These are not just figures in a report; these were lives, children who made homes safe with the warmth of their laughter. This is the fate of Gaza’s children—children who are condemned to death in refugee tents, in their mothers’ arms, under staircases, in classrooms, in queues for water and food, and everywhere.”
Some users also wrote: “What happened to Dr. Alaa Al-Najjar is not just a personal tragedy; it is a human cry to the world, reminding us that wars are not merely armed conflicts. They are tragedies that burn mothers’ dreams, silence children’s laughter, and challenge what remains of conscience in this world.”
Another group of activists commented: “What happened to Dr. Alaa Al-Najjar is a clear example of the genocide in the Gaza Strip that has continued for the past 20 months. How can a mother truly continue her life after losing nine children all at once?”
The Great Betrayal of the World and Arabs Towards the Oppressed Palestinians
Hafez Darraji, an Algerian user, wrote: “All Dr. Alaa could do was weep; a mother’s heart silently crumbled amidst the roar of warplanes and the cries of the wounded. May God reward you greatly, Dr. Alaa! May God heal your broken heart and grant you patience and endurance in the face of this unbearable tragedy.”
Dr. Ahmed Al-Enezi, a Kuwaiti physician, angrily remarked: “This is not just a disaster; this is the disgrace, shame, and savagery of a hateful world with double standards. This is a great and bitter betrayal by the Arab-Islamic community. Dr. Alaa Al-Najjar, at Al-Tahrir Hospital in Nasser Medical Complex, while serving the wounded as she did every day, heard news that no human could bear. An Israeli missile destroyed her life; nine of her children were martyred, the eldest only 12 years old. She embraced the bodies of her beloved children in the very hospital where she healed the spirits and bodies of others.”
The Kuwaiti doctor continued: “What heart can bear this? My God, nine children all at once? What heart can bear losing nine children at once? The occupying and terrorist Zionist regime makes no distinction between doctor and child, between home and hospital, and between any life. My God, give strength to Dr. Alaa’s heart!”
The Fall of Humanity and the World’s Conscience, Silent in the Face of Gaza’s Pain
Moath Daher, a Palestinian journalist, wrote: “This tragedy in Gaza is part of a long series of crimes that daily target civilians, especially children, amidst shameless international silence and Arab inaction. But what makes Dr. Alaa’s story even more heartbreaking is that she was a doctor—the last line of defense against death—yet death surprised her from inside her home. What happened to her cannot be described as merely a painful incident; it is a living testament to a horrific moral collapse in a global system that applies double standards to human beings and discriminates between human blood based on geography.”
Yousef Sharaf, another Palestinian journalist who lost his entire family in the brutal Zionist crimes against Gaza, commented on this tragedy: “Dr. Alaa was a mother of nine children yesterday, but today she is no one’s mother. All of them are gone, torn to pieces, with nothing left of their beautiful faces for their mother to caress. They left without a goodbye, and Dr. Alaa, who dedicated her life to saving the lives of wounded children in Gaza, lost her entire life under the rubble of the bombardment.”
The Palestinian journalist added: “This mother does not need consolation; rather, we should offer condolences to humanity in the world—a humanity that has died, a conscience that has died and remained silent in the face of these crimes.”
Wael Al-Dahdouh, an Al Jazeera correspondent who also lost his child, said: “What power can bear all this pain, and how can the world’s betrayal be forgotten?!”
The horrifying moment Dr. Alaa experienced upon seeing the burnt bodies of her nine children summarizes the situation of all people in Gaza: where humanitarian duty is intertwined with loss, resilience with patience, and life with death. This is a scene that words fail to describe, a scene that history will not forget, a scene that will remain a great stain on the forehead of humanity and the world’s conscience, and on all those who claimed humanity but killed it with their own hands.
From: tasnimnews