Israel is facing a massive international backlash after its forces allegedly killed 9 children of a doctor couple in Gaza during the latest wave of attacks, said Gaza’s health ministry. The incident occurred as the IDF carried out another wave of airstrikes in the Khan Younis area of the occupied enclave on Saturday night.
Reacting to the development, the IDF has said that it was looking into the matter, following the reports of the targeted killing of the nine children. The father of the family and one of the children, aged 10, were seriously wounded. The mother, AlaaNajjar, a paediatrician at Nasser Hospital, was on duty at the time of the strike.
"The Khan Younis area is a dangerous combat zone that the IDF ordered civilians to evacuate for their safety before the start of the operation,” the military said, referring to a warning on Monday. "The claims about harm to uninvolved civilians are being looked into,” it added. The UN’s special rapporteur for the Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, slammed the attack on the al-Najjar home as part of a “sadistic pattern” of a “new phase of genocide” facing Palestinians in the besieged enclave.
Meanwhile, a four-year-old Mohammed Yassine dies from a lack of food as the World Food Programme warns that more than 70,000 children in Gaza face acute levels of malnutrition. Israel’s military says it is “reviewing” an attack that killed nine of Dr Alaa al-Najjar’s 10 children in Khan Younis, as Gaza officials say killing innocent children has “become a pastime” for Israeli soldiers.
To address the unfolding crisis in Gaza, Israel has only allowed a meagre convoy of 100 trucks carrying aid into Gaza since Wednesday. Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 53,901 Palestinians and wounded 122,593, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The Government Media Office updated the death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October, 2023, and over 200 were taken captive.
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