Devastating scenes of a father grieving his wife and newborn twins after they were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza have spread across the globe.
Filmed by CNN, the footage shows the man, Mohammad Abu Al Qumsan begging to see his deceased family before falling limp in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza. Other men surround him, attempting to offer support and consolation.
Hours before the attack, Al Qumsan left the apartment to collect birth certificates for his three-day-old twins – Aysal and Aser, a boy and a girl. While he was out, he received a phone call telling him the apartment had been hit, with his two babies and wife, Jumann, killed.
Just days earlier, Dr Jumann Arfa, a pharmacist, had been posting to Facebook to celebrate the birth of her twin babies, describing them as a “miracle” and thanking the many well-wishes from friends and family. She and Al Qumsan had married last summer.
It’s been reported that before the attack, Al Qumsan had moved his family to an apartment in Deir al-Balah in a desperate attempt to protect his then-pregnant wife.
In a statement following the airstrike, the Israeli military said, “the details of the incident as published are not currently known to the IDF”, adding that it “targets only military objectives and employs various measures to minimise harm to civilians”.
More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry in a statement on Thursday.
Health officials and civil defence workers say the true toll is likely thousands higher than this number, as many bodies still remain buried under the rubble of buildings destroyed in airstrikes.
It’s also been reported that health officials in Gaza are struggling to fully identify the dead as bodies stream into overwhelmed hospitals and morgues amid the chaos of war and displacement.
The number of injured and displaced people is staggering, with the Health Ministry saying Israel’s offensive has wounded 92,401 people and displaced over 85 per cent of the population in Gaza from their homes. AP news has noted that the ministry does not distinguish between civilians and militants in this toll.
Alongside the Health Ministry’s announcement, international organisations and mediators are pushing for a ceasefire in the war, which is now in its 11th month.
The conflict began on October 7, 2023, after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing an estimated 1,200 people–most of them civilians– and taking roughly 250 hostages to Gaza. Israel says 111 of these hostages have not been released, including the bodies of 39.