Gaza father returns from registering twins' birth to find both killed in Israeli airstrike
A father in Gaza has been left without his twin babies, wife and mother-in-law after all four were killed in an Israeli airstrike near the city of Deir al-Balah.
Mohammed Abu Al-Qumsan had gone to register the births of his four-day-old twins at a local government office when he was told the home where his family were sheltering had been bombed.
The strike killed his wife Joumana Arafa, a pharmacist, twin newborns Asser and Ayssel, and their maternal grandmother.
“I don’t know what happened,” Al-Qumsan said, speaking after Monday's bombing.
"I am told it was a shell that hit the house.”
Meanwhile, another strike on the same day near the southern city of Khan Younis left a three-month-old girl as the only surviving member of her family.
Both of Reem Abu Hayyah's parents were killed, as well as five of her young siblings. The parents of three other children also perished in the strike, leaving a total of 10 people dead.
Her aunt, Soad Abu Hayyah, said: “There is no one left except this baby.
“Since this morning, we have been trying to feed her formula, but she does not accept it, because she is used to her mother’s milk.”
The Israeli military has not responded to a request for comment on the strikes, but has previously said it tries to avoid harming Palestinian civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas.
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It argues the militant group operates in dense residential areas, and accuses it of operating in buildings such as schools and homes.
According to Gaza's Health Ministry, nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, which began on October 7 2023.
An attack launched by Hamas left 1,200 people dead in Israel and saw 250 taken hostage. Israel launched a ground invasion and has repeatedly bombed Gaza in response.
The offensive has orphaned thousands of children. The United Nations estimated in February that some 17,000 children in Gaza are now unaccompanied, and the number is likely to have grown since.
The Abu Hayyah family was sheltering in an area that Israel had ordered people to evacuate from in recent days.
Around 84% of Gaza's territory has been placed under evacuation orders by the Israeli military, according to the United Nations.
Abu Al-Qumsan and his wife had heeded orders to evacuate Gaza City in the opening weeks of the war. They sought shelter in central Gaza, as the army had instructed.
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