Mohammad Abu Al Qumsan went to collect the birth certificates of his children, twins who had just been born. Then he got a call that the house in the Gaza Strip where the family lived had been bombed. The newborns and his wife were dead.
As described by CNN, 31-year-old Palestinian Mohammad Abu Al Qumsan became a father on August 10. On Tuesday, he left his home in Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip to collect the birth certificates of twins, a boy and a girl named Aysal and Aser, when he received a call from neighbors informing him that the building had been bombed by Israeli forces, killing both the children and his wife, 28-year-old Jumana, and her mother.
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Gaza Strip. 31-year-old loses family, including newborn twins
According to CNN, the man tried to get to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital on Tuesday, where his loved ones were taken. A group of people gathered around him to try to comfort him. A recording by a reporter from the station shows Al Qumsan kneeling by the bodies wrapped in white cloth and praying. “I didn't have time to enjoy them. (My wife – editor's note) had just given birth, she was still tired, she didn't get up and didn't move much,” the 31-year-old told reporters.
Al Qumsan explained that his family moved into the house in an attempt to escape the bombing when the 28-year-old was pregnant. The woman was a pharmacist. Before the tragedy, she had already shared the happy news on social media and called the birth of her children a “miracle.” The couple married in the summer of 2023.
The man's family was among at least 23 people killed in several Israeli strikes in the area that day. In total, nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, including more than 16,400 children, CNN reported, citing government statistics.
Main image source: Reuters