CNN
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Mohammad Abu Al Qumsan trembled and gasped in disbelief, his eyes glazed over before he slumped limply in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in central Gaza.
“I’m begging you. I’m begging you. Let me see her,” he shouted to health officials at the medical facility on Tuesday.
“She just gave birth. Please let me see her.”
Hours earlier, the Palestinian father of two had left his home in Deir al-Balah to collect birth certificates for his three-day-old twins – Aysal and Aser, a boy and a girl. But while he was on the way, he said, he received a call that his house had been hit by an Israeli attack. The two babies and his wife Jumana had died.
Footage from a freelance journalist for CNN shows dozens of mourners crowding around Al Qumsan at Al-Aqsa Hospital, with men attempting to comfort the grieving widower by gently stroking his forehead.
In another scene, Al Qumsan is seen kneeling next to the bodies of the dead wrapped in shrouds before offering Islamic funeral prayers with rows of worshippers. His wife, a pharmacist, and twins were among at least 23 people, including a nine-month-old baby, killed in several Israeli strikes in the area, hospital officials said.
CNN has asked the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment on the attack.
“May God reunite you in Paradise, my love,” said an imam. “I swear by God that you will be reunited with them in Paradise and will be with them forever.”
Al Qumsan told CNN he and his family moved to an apartment in Deir al-Balah in a desperate attempt to protect his then-pregnant wife from Israel’s relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
Just days earlier, Jumana had posted on Facebook celebrating the birth of her twins, calling them a “miracle.” The couple had married last summer, before the war between Israel and Hamas began.
“Together forever,” she wrote in an earlier social media post announcing her July 2023 wedding.
Israel launched its military offensive on October 7 after the militant Hamas group, which governs the Gaza Strip, attacked southern Israel. Israeli authorities said at least 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 others abducted.
Since then, nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip – including more than 16,400 children, including 115 newborns – and more than 92,000 injured, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Al Qumsan is one of hundreds of thousands of survivors who had no time to mourn their loved ones amid a 10-month Israeli offensive that killed entire families, exacerbated a humanitarian crisis and turned cities into deserts.
At least 1.9 million people have been displaced, according to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). The entire population of more than 2.2 million people is at risk of famine and disease.
But aid workers say they cannot provide aid to war-affected Gaza residents because of Israeli aid restrictions. Meanwhile, health authorities told CNN they cannot treat wounded Palestinians because the medical system has been destroyed by Israeli attacks. More than 885 health workers have been killed, the ministry said, and less than half of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are partially operational.
The UN children’s agency UNICEF warned that the “relentless” war in Gaza “continues to inflict cruelty on thousands of children.” It is estimated that at least 17,000 unaccompanied or separated children live in Gaza.
“I was shocked by the scale of the suffering, destruction and massive displacement in Gaza,” said Salim Oweis, a UNICEF communications officer, on Friday. “The footage the world is seeing on television provides an important insight into the hell that people have been enduring for over 10 months.”
“What is not fully shown is how, behind the collapsed buildings, entire neighborhoods, livelihoods and dreams were razed to the ground.”
