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THE SLIGO-BASED BROTHER of a woman in Gaza who lost nine of her children in an Israeli air strike has described the moment he learned of their deaths.
Dr Ali Al Najjar has been working in Sligo University Hospital since 2020, and he spoke to Joe Duffy on RTÉ Radio 1′s Liveline this afternoon about his sister Alaa’s loss.
Alaa is a doctor at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza.
The tragedy that befell her last Friday made headlines around the world after the strike on her home killed nine of her ten children while she was at work. Her husband Hamdi remains in critical condition.
These are the children of Dr. Alaa and Dr. Hamdi Al Najjar.
— Hamdah Salhut (@hamdahsalhut) May 24, 2025
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
He said he had been dreading that something like this could happen ever since the IDF bombardment of Gaza began in October 2023.
“My heart has been probably displaced from where it used to be,” Dr Ali said.
“You are always connected to the media, and watching the news every minute, just hoping that you won’t be reading about one of your relatives.”
He described the moment he found out that all but one of his sister’s children had died in the IDF attack on the family home.
“I was sitting next to my brother and and… he was watching a video.
“I recognised a voice in that in that video. So I jumped [up] immediately and looked at the picture, the horrible picture of child bodies being pulled out from the rubble, and those were her kids.”
He said he could also see her husband’s brother holding her back as she sshouted “my love, my love” to one of her deceased children as they were carried out of the rubble.
He said that communication with Alaa has been “desperate” in the days since the tragedy due to substandard communication in and out of Gaza.
“She doesn’t have WhatsApp. She has a phone that belongs to one of our cousins. I can’t communicate with her through WhatsApp”, adding: “It’s the story that everybody living in Gaza at the moment is experiencing difficulty of communication is a nightmare by itself.”
A GoFundMe fundraiser has been set up by Dr Ali’s colleagues at Sligo University Hospital in the hope of raising funds for his bereaved sister and her remaining family left in Gaza.
“His sister, Dr. Alaa Al Najjar, a paediatrician had left for work when 9 out of 10 of her children were brutally murdered,” his colleagues wrote in the GoFundMe page description.
They added: “If there is anything you can spare, we ask you to consider donating so we can support Ali in some small way during this horrific time.”
The fundraiser has collected almost €25,000 in donations so far.
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