Israeli airstrike kills 4-day-old twins and mother in Gaza while father went to register their birth

ISRAEL: Abu Al-Qumsan had left his home in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah on Tuesday to register the birth of his newborn twins—a boy named Asser and a girl named Ayssel—who were born four days ago.

Hours later, Al-Qumsan’s world shattered when he received a call from his neighbours, who informed him that the house where his family took shelter had been reduced to rubble.

His wife, Joumana Arafa, her mother, and the newborn twins were all killed by an Israeli airstrike.

“I don’t know what happened,” Al-Qumsan said.

“I am told it was a shell that hit the house.”

Arafa, a doctor, announced the arrival of her newborns via social media on August 10, calling them a “miracle” in her post. According to CNN, the couple were married last summer, months before the war had begun.

Al-Qumsan is among the thousands of Palestinians who had followed Israel’s orders to evacuate Gaza City during the early weeks of the war.

He had moved his family from North Gaza to an apartment in Deir al-Balah in a desperate attempt to protect his then-pregnant wife from Israel’s bombing massacre across the Gaza Strip.

On Tuesday, Al-Qumsan went to a local government office to receive the birth certificates of his children, only to learn of his family’s tragic demise.

He later arrived at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Central Gaza to collect their remains, where he wept in disbelief, longing to see his family one last time.

“I beg you. I beg you. Let me see them… She just gave birth. Please let me see her,” he was quoted as saying to health officials by CNN.

The newborns were later buried in the same body bag as their mother after Al-Qumsan and his family offered their final prayers.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, a distraught Al-Qumsan revealed that he never had the chance to celebrate the birth of his children.

“I went to get my children’s birth certificates. My wife gave birth days ago, and I did not have the opportunity to celebrate their birth. She had a C-section, and she was very tired. She was unable to leave the house,” he told Al Jazeera.

Unfortunately, Al-Qumsan is not alone.

Thousands of parents have lost their children, and many have lost their wives, due to Israel’s relentless bombing campaign, now in its 11th month.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry’s latest update on Tuesday, at least 39,929 people have been killed in the war, with a significant portion of the deceased being women and children.

According to the health ministry, 115 infants have been killed so far since the war began on October 7, 2023.

Similarly, Israel’s brutal invasion has left thousands of orphans—so many that local doctors use the acronym WCNSF, or “wounded child, no surviving family,” to register them.

The UN estimated in February that around 17,000 children in Gaza are unaccompanied, with that number likely having increased since.