A ten-year-old Palestinian boy who survived an Israeli air strike that killed his father and nine siblings in Gaza is being flown to Italy for urgent medical care.
Adam al-Najjar, who suffered extensive burns and lost a hand in the attack, is set to arrive in Milan on Wednesday evening alongside his mother, paediatrician Dr Alaa al-Najjar, as well as his aunt and four cousins, Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani confirmed.
“Adam will be admitted to Niguarda Hospital in Milan for treatment of multiple fractures,” Tajani told RTL radio. The plane, arranged for transporting Palestinian patients in need of urgent care, is expected to land at Milan’s Linate Airport at 7:30pm local time (1730 GMT), according to the foreign ministry.
The Israeli airstrike hit the family’s home in Khan Yunis on 23 May. Adam’s mother was working at the hospital when the bombing occurred. Her husband, Dr Hamdi al-Najjar, who was also injured in the blast, died from his wounds last week.
Speaking to Italy’s La Repubblica, Dr al-Najjar described the horror of returning home to find her children’s bodies charred beyond recognition. “I remember everything… every scream, every moment,” she said. “But I try to focus entirely on Adam now—it’s the only way to cope.”
In the same interview, when asked by his mother about his dreams, Adam replied, “I want to live in a beautiful place. A place where there are no bombs, where houses aren’t broken, and children go to school and play. A beautiful place is where they can fix my arm and my mother isn’t sad. They told me Italy is a beautiful place.”
Before their departure, Dr al-Najjar packed only the essentials: Adam’s clothes, their identification documents, and the Koran. “My heart is broken,” she told Repubblica. “I’m leaving behind my husband, my children, my job, my patients, my home. People are dying of hunger, or bombs. We just want to live in peace.”
The recent Israeli onslaught in Gaza erupted following the Hamas-led assault on Israel on October 7, 2023, which claimed 1,219 Israeli lives, according to Israeli figures. Since then, Gaza’s health ministry reports over 54,981 people — the majority civilians — have been killed in the enclave. The United Nations deems these figures credible.
