Adam al-Najjar, an 11-year-old Palestinian boy who survived an Israeli airstrike that killed nine of his siblings and his father, has been evacuated from Gaza and arrived in Italy for medical treatment.
Adam’s mother, Alaa al-Najjar, a pediatrician who was working at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis at the time the IDF massacred her family, joined her only surviving child in the evacuation.
According to The Guardian, Adam and Alaa would be accompanied by one of Adam’s aunts, four of his cousins, and other patients from Gaza on the flight. A total of 80 Palestinians needing medical treatment from Gaza on three planes were flown to Italy.
Adam’s father, Hamdi al-Najjar, was also a doctor. He hung on for a few days after being critically injured by the Israeli strike but ultimately succumbed to his wounds. The nine al-Najjar children who were killed ranged in age from seven months to 12 years.
Alaa and Adam were taken to an airport in the Israeli city of Eilat on the Red Sea and flown to Italy on a plane chartered by the Italian government. “I am not strong. Everyone says I am, they call me a hero because I keep going, but I want the right not to be strong,” Alaa told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica before her evacuation.
“I am a woman whose children were killed, nearly all of them, when all I ever wanted was to protect them. Not just their bodies – I wanted to protect their feelings too. If God allowed this tragedy, there must be a reason. There has to be. But I don’t know what it is,” Alaa added.
Adam was severely wounded in the airstrike, suffering severe burns. He also had his hand amputated, making him one of the thousands of children the Israeli military has turned into amputees since October 2023.
