Dr. Hamdi al-Najjar, a Palestinian physician who lost nine of his children in a devastating Israeli airstrike on Khan Younis, has succumbed to injuries sustained during the same attack, local health officials confirmed on Saturday.

The airstrike, which took place on 23 May, struck the family’s home just moments after Hamdi had returned from dropping off his wife, Dr. Alaa al-Najjar, at Nasser Medical Complex, where both worked as doctors. The couple’s 10 children were inside the house at the time. Nine were killed instantly; their 11-year-old son, Adam, was severely wounded and remains in critical condition.

The tragic incident leaves Alaa and Adam as the only surviving members of the al-Najjar family.

Dr. Milena Angelova-Chee, a Bulgarian physician working alongside the couple at Nasser Hospital, described the injuries Hamdi sustained as extensive, involving his brain, lungs, kidney, and right arm. He had been hospitalized since the strike but ultimately succumbed to his wounds over a week later.

Graeme Groom, a British surgeon working in the hospital who operated on the couple's son, Adam, told the BBC it was "unbearably cruel" that his mother Alaa, who spent years caring for children as a paediatrician, could lose almost all her own in a single strike.

He said that Adam's "left arm was just about hanging off, he was covered in fragment injuries and he had several substantial lacerations."

"Since both his parents are doctors, he seemed to be among the privileged group within Gaza, but as we lifted him onto the operating table, he felt much younger than 11."

Since Israel launched its military operation in Gaza on 7 October 2023, in response to a Hamas-led attack, the conflict has taken a devastating toll on Palestinian civilians. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, over 54,000 people have been killed, with tens of thousands more injured.