UN’s Albanese says targeting of doctors’ family shows ‘sadistic pattern’ of genocide
Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, condemned Israel’s bombing of a home on Friday belonging to Palestinian doctors Alaa and Hamdi Al-Najjar, in which nine of their 10 children were killed.
Commenting on a video published by Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian physician who volunteers in Palestine, Albanese said the attack represented a “distinguishable sadistic pattern of the new phase of the genocide”.
Alaa Al-Najjar, a paediatrician at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, reportedly received the bodies of her children while working.
Two doctors go to work to assist others.Nine of their kids are killed by an Israeli missile targeting their home. Only surviving child, in critical conditions.
Targeting families in the still-standing buildings: distinguishable sadistic pattern of the new phase of the genocide. https://t.co/6tlylARKK5
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) May 24, 2025
Israeli forces target al-Awda Hospital, ambulances: Director
Our colleagues on the ground are reporting artillery shelling in the vicinity of al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza. The hospital’s director told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces had bombed the perimeter of the facility, with shrapnel scattering in the area.
He said the hospital has been targeted for days and also reported attacks against ambulances transporting the sick and wounded.
The Israeli army has targeted Gaza’s healthcare system since the start of the war, with most hospitals in the territory out of service.
Health workers, others trapped inside Gaza hospital: Health Ministry
Several healthcare workers and others at the European Hospital in Khan Younis could not be evacuated because of repeated Israeli fire, Gaza’s Health Ministry says. In a statement shared on Telegram, the ministry called on “the relevant authorities to provide protection for healthcare facilities” and their staff.
At least 94 percent of Gaza’s hospitals have been damaged or destroyed in Israel’s war on the enclave, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
‘What did this child do to Netanyahu?’
Wissam al-Madhoun is grappling with the aftermath of an Israeli attack on a house in Khan Younis that killed his sister, her husband and the couple’s two children.
“Suddenly, a missile destroyed the entire house. All of them were civilians,” al-Madhoun told the AFP news agency. He was among the mourners who gathered around the white-shrouded bodies outside Nasser Hospital.
“We found them lying in the street. What did this child do to Netanyahu?”
