A Gaza doctor went to work to save lives. Hours later, her children’s burned bodies arrived
Dr. Alaa al-Najjar left her ten children at home on Friday when she went to work in the emergency room at the Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza.
Hours later, the bodies of seven children – most of them badly burned – arrived at the hospital, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. They were Dr. Najjar’s own children, killed in an Israeli airstrike on her family’s home, Gaza Civil Defense said. The oldest was 12, the youngest just three years old. The bodies of two more children – a 7-month-old and a two-year-old – remained trapped under the rubble as of Saturday morning.
Only one of her children – critically injured – survived. Dr. Najjar’s husband, himself a doctor, was also badly injured in the strike.
Civil defense and the health ministry say that the family’s home, in a neighborhood of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, was targeted by an Israeli airstrike.
In response to a CNN request for comment, the Israeli military said aircraft had “struck a number of suspects who were identified operating from a structure adjacent to IDF troops in the area of Khan Yunis.” It said it was reviewing the claim civilians had been killed.
Gaza Civil Defense published graphic video from the scene of the strike. It showed medics lifting an injured man onto a stretcher as other first responders try to extinguish a fire engulfing the house. They recover the charred remains of several children from the debris and wrap them in white sheets.
‘Wiping out entire families’
Munir al-Barsh, Director-General of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, said that Dr. Najjar’s husband had just returned home when the home was struck.
“Nine of their children were killed: Yahya, Rakan, Raslan, Gebran, Eve, Rival, Sayden, Luqman, and Sidra,” Barsh posted on X. He said her husband was in intensive care.
“This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain. In Gaza, it is not only healthcare workers who are targeted—Israel’s aggression goes further, wiping out entire families,” Barsh said.
Ahmad al-Farra, a doctor at the Nasser Medical Complex, told CNN that Dr. Najjar continued to work despite losing her children, while periodically checking on the condition of her husband and sole surviving child, Adam, who is 11.
Both the father and son underwent two surgeries at the hospital and are still receiving treatment, Farra said.
Youssef Abu al-Reesh, a senior official at the Health Ministry, said Dr. Najjar had left her children at home to “fulfill her duty and her calling toward all those sick children who have no place but Nasser Hospital.”
Reesh said that when he arrived at the hospital, he had seen her “standing tall, calm, patient, composed, with eyes full of acceptance. You could hear nothing from her but quiet murmurs of (glorification of God) and (seeking forgiveness).”
Dr. Najjar, 38, is a pediatrician, but like most doctors in Gaza, she has been working in the emergency room during Israel’s onslaught on the territory.
Source: CNN
Russia launches deadly aerial assault on Ukrainian capital amid major prisoner swap
Russia launched a deadly aerial assault on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv using missiles and drones for a second night in a row, as the two sides carried out an exchange of hundreds of prisoners of war.
Three people were killed in attacks on the Ukrainian capital region overnight into Sunday, the Kyiv regional military administration said, a day after officials reported at least 13 dead across Ukraine as a result of Russian attacks.
Authorities said 21 people were also injured across the capital city and greater capital region, including two children.
Air raid sirens blared for hours in the capital and residents were warned to stay in shelters in the early hours of Sunday as officials said attack drones continued to bear down on the capital. Civilian buildings in multiple districts were damaged as Russia mounted an attack using drones and rockets, authorities said.
Kyiv was under another “massive” attack, mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a Telegram post early Sunday.
The onslaught on the capital comes as international pressure mounts on Russian President Vladimir Putin to accept a ceasefire proposal and end his more than three-year war.
Kyiv and Moscow earlier this month held their first direct talks since soon after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Those talks instead ended with an agreement for the exchange of prisoners, which began Friday and is expected to last three days.
Since the start of that exchange, Russian attacks have targeted regions across Ukraine, with the “main focus” being on the capital Kyiv, according to Ukraine’s Air Force.
Firefighters try to put out a fire following a Russian attack in Kyiv on Sunday.
Ukrainian Emergency Service/AP
People take shelter inside a metro station in Kyiv on Sunday.
Alina Smutko/Reuters
On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his condolences to families and loved ones of the injured. “It was a difficult night for all of Ukraine,” he said.
At least 18 other people were injured in Kyiv in attacks overnight into Saturday, according to police.
Ukrainian parliament member Kira Rudik told CNN Saturday she spent the night hiding “under the stairs” in Kyiv during the overnight bombardment. “It was terrifying, it felt honestly like Armageddon, the explosions were everywhere,” she said.
Ukraine’s Air Force said Sunday a combined attack of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles launched from the ships and planes were targeting multiple Ukrainian cities as attacks continued ahead of what was expected to be the third day of the exchange.
Prisoner swap
Over 600 Russian and Ukrainian servicemen were released Saturday as part of the second phase of the agreed prisoner exchange.
Videos released by the Ukrainian Coordination Center for Treatment of Prisoners of War showed the hundreds of released men, most with shaved heads and draped in Ukrainian flags, hugging each other and calling their loved ones on the phone.
Almost 800 people were released on Friday during the first phase of the swap.
The agreement to release 1,000 prisoners on each side was the only significant outcome of the meeting between Kyiv and Moscow in Istanbul last week.
Olena, a Ukrainian woman whose husband Yuriy spent six months in Russian captivity, finally reunited with him on Saturday after he was released in the prisoner swap. A video posted by Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense shows her running to find her husband and hugging him tightly once she does.
“This is the best day. I was running, looking for him, screaming. I am very grateful,” Olena said in the video. The day before she reunited with Yuriy, she had asked several of the released Ukrainian prisoners of war if any of them recognized her husband, but none of them were able to, leaving her very distressed.
A Ukrainian man embraces his wife after returning home on May 23 following the prisoner exchange.
Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha on Saturday said: “One week has passed since the Istanbul meeting, and Russia has yet to send its ‘peace memorandum.’ Instead, Russia sends deadly drones and missiles at civilians.”
Meanwhile, Russia said that it also was attacked by Ukrainian drones.
Russia’s Defense Ministry on Sunday said it intercepted or destroyed around 100 attack drones, Reuters reported. Most of those destroyed were over Russia’s central and southern regions, with two near Moscow, the ministry said.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin later said on Telegram that the number of drones destroyed or intercepted near the capital had risen to 11, according to Reuters.
The defense ministry a day earlier claimed it had destroyed 94 Ukrainian UAVs over Russian territory, mostly over the Belgorod and Bryansk regions. Some UAVs were also shot down over the Kursk, Lipetsk, Voronezh and Tula regions too, it added.
The governor of the Tula region, Dmitry Miliaev, said Saturday three people were injured, including two who were hospitalized.
The Istanbul meeting was initially proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in response to a ceasefire-or-sanctions ultimatum given to Moscow by Kyiv’s European allies – which many saw as a clear attempt by the Kremlin leader to distract and delay.
Ukraine and its allies demanded that Russia agree to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Istanbul, but there was no major breakthrough.
This story has been updated.
CNN’s Ivana Kottasová, Kathleen Magramo, and Eve Brennan contributed to this report.
Source: CNN
Interior Ministry responds to explosion at Minya Police Officers Club
Egypt”s Interior Ministry revealed the details of the explosion that occurred Saturday evening in front of Police Officers Club in Minya Governorate, Upper Egypt.
The ministry said in a statement that at approximately 9:27 pm on Saturday, eyewitnesses reported that two people were walking along the Nile Corniche Street in the Minya city.
One of them was carrying a bag containing a small gas cylinder, which then exploded.
It explained that the cylinder explosion resulted in severe lacerations to the person carrying it, including to his hand and various parts of his body. The person accompanying him also sustained moderate injuries, but no other damage occurred.
The statement said that they were transferred to a hospital for treatment. Legal measures were taken, and investigations are being completed.
Security forces have imposed a security cordon around the explosion site in front of the Police Officers Club in Minya Governorate, pending confirmation of the cause of the explosion.
Source: Egypt Independent