Sidra al-Najjar

Sidra was the baby of the ten children of Dr. Alaa al-Najjar, a pediatrician at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, and Dr. Hamdi al-Najjar; her name is spelled “Sidra” consistently across CNN, the Guardian, Drop Site News and the Irish Times. Her uncle Ali told the Irish Times that Sidra was a twin: her sister Sidar had died at three months of an infection and lack of medication.

On Friday, May 23, 2025, an Israeli airstrike destroyed the family home in the Qizan al-Najjar neighborhood, south of Khan Younis, minutes after her father had returned from dropping her mother at the hospital for her shift. Nine of the children were killed; AP reported the dead ranged in age from seven months to twelve years. CNN, citing the children’s cousin Sahar, reported that Dr. Alaa broke down over the last bottle of breast milk she had expressed for “her infant daughter, Sidra, whose body remains missing” — identifying Sidra as the seven-month-old. The Guardian and Drop Site News, citing the children’s uncle, instead named the missing six-month-old baby as her sister Sayden. The two accounts cannot be reconciled from the reporting; both agree that Sidra, an infant, was among the dead.

Her eleven-year-old brother Adam was the only child to survive, critically wounded, and her father was critically wounded; her mother received the bodies of her children at the hospital where she worked. Asked about the strike, the Israeli military said it had struck suspects operating from a structure adjacent to its troops, called the area “a dangerous war zone,” and said “the claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review.”

Sources

• 9 of a doctor’s 10 children are killed in Israel’s latest strikes in Gaza — AP
• Nine out of Gaza doctor’s 10 children killed in Israeli airstrike — CNN
• ‘One of the most heartbreaking tragedies’: Gaza doctor’s last goodbye before nine children killed in airstrike — The Guardian
• ‘I’m not seeking revenge from anyone. I just want this madness to end’ — The Irish Times