Went to Register Birth... Father Lost Wife and Twins in Israel Bombing

After Receiving the Birth Certificate, Heard Sad News from Neighbors
Cried Holding the Laminated Birth Certificate Upon Arrival at the Hospital

In the Gaza Strip of Palestine, a tragic incident occurred where a father went to a government office to register the birth of his 4-day-old twin son and daughter, only to have his wife and twin children killed in an Israeli airstrike during his absence. On the 14th (local time), foreign media including the Associated Press reported on the tragic story of Mohammed Abu Al Qumsan, a resident of Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has been at war with Hamas for over 10 months.

In the Gaza Strip of Palestine, a father faced a tragedy when his twin newborn son and daughter, just four days old, and his wife were all killed in an Israeli airstrike while he was at a government office registering the births of his twins.
[Photo by Reuters·Yonhap News]

On the morning of the 13th, he went to the government office to register the birth of his twin children. After happily receiving the birth certificates, he received a call from a neighbor informing him that the apartment where they lived in Deir al-Balah had been bombed and that his family had all died. Al Qumsan immediately rushed to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, but his children and family were already cold corpses in the morgue.

Holding the laminated birth certificates, Al Qumsan wept bitterly. He mourned, "My wife is gone, and my two babies and mother-in-law are gone," adding, "I never even had the time to celebrate the birth of my twins." The family had left their home in Gaza City following an Israeli military order to evacuate just weeks after the Israel-Palestine war began. The couple had delivered the twins by cesarean section and had joyfully announced the birth of the twins on Facebook afterward.

Earlier, on the evening of the 12th, an Israeli airstrike on Khan Yunis in southern Gaza wiped out two families totaling 10 people in one house. Five children aged 5 to 12, their parents, and the parents of another family with three children were killed. The only survivor was a 3-month-old baby. Additionally, on the 10th, an Israeli airstrike on a school in Gaza killed more than 80 civilians who had taken refuge there. At that time, an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson claimed that the school was "being used as a military facility by Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants."