War's Innocent Casualties: The Gaza Crisis Deepens

Mohammed Abu Al-Qumsan discovered that his twin newborns, wife, and mother-in-law were killed by an Israeli strike on their Gaza apartment. The tragedy unfolded as the Gaza war, ignited by a cross-border raid by Palestinian militants, continues to devastate civilian lives and infrastructure in the region.

Mohammed Abu Al-Qumsan had just picked up birth certificates for his newly-born twins when he discovered they had been killed, along with his wife and her mother, by an Israeli strike on their Gaza apartment. Clutching the laminated documents intended to signify rare joy in the besieged Palestinian enclave, a grieving Abu Al-Qumsan was consoled by a friend at the morgue where their bodies had been brought.

Recalling the heartbreaking phone call from neighbors, Abu Al-Qumsan, 31, stated, 'My wife is gone, my two babies and my mother-in-law. I was told it's a tank shell on the apartment they were in, in a house we were displaced to.' The grief-stricken father and others carried his boy and girl, Asser and Ayssel, wrapped in white shrouds—a tragically common sight in Gaza amid relentless Israeli air and ground assaults forcing countless people to flee in search of shelter.

A man prayed as the bodies were placed in the back of a car, while a crowd gathered at Al-Aqsa Maryrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. As the Gaza war stretches into its tenth month, ongoing airstrikes, artillery fire, and dire shortages of medicine, food, and clean water bring this densely populated region to its knees. 'Today, it was registered in history that the occupation army targets newborn children who are barely four days old, twins along with their mother and grandmother,' said hospital doctor Khalil al-Daqran. Israel asserts it takes significant measures to avoid civilian casualties and accuses Hamas of using human shields, a claim the militants deny.

The conflict began with a Palestinian militant cross-border raid on Israel on Oct. 7, resulting in 1,200 Israeli deaths and over 250 hostages. In retaliation, Israel's offensive has left nearly 40,000 Gaza residents dead and significantly injured over 92,000, according to Israeli figures, reducing large swathes of the enclave to rubble.

(With inputs from agencies.)