KHAN YOUNIS, Palestinian Territories: Mohammed Abu Al-Qumsan had just collected the birth certificates of his three-day-old twins when he received the news: his Gaza apartment had been bombed, killing the babies and their mother.
Footage of a distraught Abu Al-Qumsan, weeping and falling as he still holds the birth certificates, has been widely circulated on social media, becoming the latest emblem of the devastating toll of the war in the Palestinian territory.
“I was in the hospital at the time when the house was targeted,” he says, tears streaming down his face.
“There was a call, after the birth certificates were printed.
“The caller asked, ‘Are you okay and where are you?’ I told them I was at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, and I was told that my house had been bombed.”
Abu Al-Qumsan had left his wife, the infants and his mother-in-law in the fifth-floor flat they shared in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, which has been relentlessly bombed by Israeli forces.
“I was informed that they are in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and I told them I am at the entrance to the hospital,” he says.
“I went inside the hospital with the birth certificates in my hands... and they told me they are in the morgue.”
On Wednesday, with his home obliterated and his family gone, Abu Al-Qumsan folded unused pink and yellow baby clothes outside a blue tent in Al-Mawasi, a coastal area that Israel has declared a humanitarian zone.
He never got the chance to show his wife that their babies had been legally named: Aser, the boy, and Aysal, the girl.
“On the same day I obtained their birth certificates, I also had to submit their death certificates, for my children, and also for their mother.”
“I did not get the chance to celebrate their arrival. Their clothes are new, they did not wear them,” he says, also showing a half-full pack of nappies.
“These nappies, we had a hard time finding them. For three months, we have been trying to buy some” in the Gaza Strip, where there has been a dire shortage of basic supplies since the start of the war.
The Gaza war began with Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Militants also seized 251 people, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has killed at least 39,965 people, according to a toll from the territory’s health ministry, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.
Abu Al-Qumsan married his wife Jumana, a pharmacist, in July last year, before the war plunged their lives into chaos.
She endured a traumatic pregnancy as they fled from place to place to escape the bombardments. Despite carrying twins, she insisted on volunteering in hospitals until the seventh month.
“Since the beginning of the war, I have been afraid every day, living in terror, and I was afraid that she would miscarry,” Abu Al-Qumsan says.
“We lost friends, family, and people who were very dear to us,” he adds.
“We were in a lot of pain, we were very scared. We ran a lot.”
“I want to know why she was killed in this way. I want to know why she was targeted. In the house, in a safe area,” he says.
“There was no prior warning of the bombing of the house. I have nothing to do with military action. We are civilians.”
Newborn twins killed in Gaza strike while father registered birth
https://arab.news/pg4u4
Newborn twins killed in Gaza strike while father registered birth
- Footage of a distraught Abu Al-Qumsan, weeping and falling as he still holds the birth certificates, has been widely circulated on social media
- “I was in the hospital at the time when the house was targeted,” he says, tears streaming down his face
First responders enter devastated Aleppo neighborhood after days of deadly fighting
- The US-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Daesh group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria’s national army
ALEPPO, Syria: First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in Syria’ s northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.
The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.
The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.
The US-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Daesh group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria’s national army. Some of the factions that make up the army, however, were previously Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF. However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”
The neighborhood appeared calm Sunday. The United Nations said it was trying to dispatch more convoys to the neighborhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgent supplies.
Government security forces brought journalists to tour the devastated area, showing them the damaged Khalid Al-Fajer Hospital and a military position belonging to the SDF’s security forces that government forces had targeted.
The SDF statement accused the government of targeting the hospital “dozens of times” before patients were evacuated. Damascus accused the Kurdish-led group of using the hospital and other civilian facilities as military positions.
On one street, Syrian Red Crescent first responders spoke to a resident surrounded by charred cars and badly damaged residential buildings.
Some residents told The Associated Press that SDF forces did not allow their cars through checkpoints to leave.
“We lived a night of horror. I still cannot believe that I am right here standing on my own two feet,” said Ahmad Shaikho. “So far the situation has been calm. There hasn’t been any gunfire.”
Syrian Civil Defense first responders have been disarming improvised mines that they say were left by the Kurdish forces as booby traps.
Residents who fled are not being allowed back into the neighborhood until all the mines are cleared. Some were reminded of the displacement during Syria’s long civil war.
“I want to go back to my home, I beg you,” said Hoda Alnasiri.
