The head of a hospital in the Gaza Strip has issued an emotional appeal calling for an end to Israel’s bombardment following an air raid that doctors said killed several infants.
“Look at these children. Who is killing these children,” asked Yousef al-Akkad, director of European Gaza Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, standing behind the bandaged and bloodied bodies of the toddlers.
“Free world, where are you regarding these massacres committed against this bereaved and oppressed people?” al-Akkad continued, in a video released by the besieged enclave’s Ministry of Health on Wednesday.
At least nine people were killed, including seven children, in an Israeli air attack that struck the al-Bakri family house south of Khan Younis, Palestinian news agency WAFA said. Many were trapped under the rubble, it added.
The news of the attack spread quickly on social media as images of children’s bodies lined up side by side on a hospital stretcher stirred outrage in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Photographers swarmed the operation room of the European Gaza Hospital as women covered their eyes and doctors wept.
“This is a massacre,” al-Akkad said, his voice choking with emotion. “Let the world see, these are just children.”
Doctors and residents also confirmed that the children were killed in the attack and said the al-Bakri family was just one of many such cases on Wednesday, according to The Associated Press news agency.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which started a devastating air campaign on Gaza after an October 7 attack of Hamas, the group that rules the enclave, in southern Israel.
So far, at least 1,400 people have been killed in Israel and nearly 3,500 in Gaza, including 1,030 children.
