Adam al-Najjar, who survived an Israeli strike on May 23, 2025, that killed his nine siblings and his father, pictured here with sisters Sidra and Eve, two of the children killed. (Credit: Reuters)
ROME — Alaa al-Najjar, a Palestinian paediatrician, and her badly wounded 11-year-old son, Adam, were due to be taken by ambulance with other critically-ill patients and family members to an airport in Israel's Eilat, on the Red Sea, on Wednesday and then flown to Milan on a plane chartered by the Italian government, The Guardian and AFP report.
Najjar’s husband and nine of her 10 children were killed on May 23, when their family home in Khan Younis was bombed by Israeli forces. Her husband, Hamdi, had just dropped her off for her shift at the town’s Nasser Hospital, where they both worked. He had then returned home to look after the children when the building was bombed.
Najjar was at the hospital when the charred remains of seven of her children were brought in. Two were found in the rubble and Hamdi died a few days later of his injuries. Najjar, who ran to the house to the two missing children burned beyond recognition, told Italy's Repubblica daily: "I remember everything. Every detail, every minute, every scream. But when I remember, it's too painful, so I try to keep my mind focused entirely on Adam," she said in an interview published Wednesday ahead of their arrival.
Adam was the sole survivor. His hand had to be amputated and he suffered severe burns on his body. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said that Adam's aunt and four cousins would also be flown to Milan for treatment.
“I am not strong,” Najjar told La Repubblica newspaper before her evacuation. "Everyone says I am, they call me a hero because I keep going, but I want the right not to be strong.”
A plane carrying Palestinians in need of medical care is scheduled to land at 7:30 pm (1730 GMT) at Milan's Linate airport, according to the foreign ministry.
Asked by his mother during the interview to describe his hopes, Adam said he wanted to "live in a beautiful place."
"A beautiful place is a place where there are no bombs. In a beautiful place, the houses are not broken, and I go to school," he said, according to La Repubblica. "Schools have desks, the kids study their lessons, but then they go play in the courtyard and nobody dies."
"A beautiful place is where they operate on my arm and my arm works again. In a beautiful place, my mother is not sad. They told me that Italy is a beautiful place."
Najjar said she has packed the Qoran, their documents and Adam's clothes. "I am heartbroken. I am leaving behind everything that was important to me. My husband, my children, the hospital where I worked, my job, my patients," she said. "People are dying of hunger. If not of hunger, of bombs. We would just like to live in peace," she told the daily.
Israel has killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians in Gaza since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel. Israel's total blockade of the enclave has forced Palestinians to take extreme risks to collect insufficient aid from Israeli-backed aid distribution centers, where dozens of Palestinians have been shot and killed trying to pick up food boxes in recent days.
ROME — Alaa al-Najjar, a Palestinian paediatrician, and her badly wounded 11-year-old son, Adam, were due to be taken by ambulance with other critically-ill patients and family members to an airport in Israel's Eilat, on the Red Sea, on Wednesday and then flown to Milan on a plane chartered by the Italian government, The Guardian and AFP report.Najjar’s husband and nine of her 10 children were killed on May 23, when their family home in Khan Younis was bombed by Israeli forces. Her husband, Hamdi, had just dropped her off for her shift at the town’s Nasser Hospital, where they both worked. He had then returned home to look after the children when the building was bombed.Najjar was at the hospital when the charred remains of seven of her children were brought in. Two were found in the rubble and Hamdi died a few days...
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