Israeli airstrike kills baby twins in Gaza

Sydney Morning Herald:

Israeli airstrike kills baby twins in Gaza

It took 10 years and three rounds of in vitro fertilisation for Rania Abu Anza to become pregnant, and only seconds for her to lose her five-month-old twins, a boy and a girl. An Israeli airstrike hit the home of her extended family in the southern Gaza city of Rafah late on Saturday, killing her children, her husband and 11 other relatives and leaving another nine missing under the rubble, according to survivors and local health officials.

She had woken up about 10pm to breastfeed Naeim, the boy, and went back to sleep with him in one arm and Wissam, the girl, in the other. Her husband was sleeping beside them. The explosion came an hour and a half later, and the house collapsed. “I screamed for my children and my husband,” she said this week as she sobbed and cradled a baby’s blanket to her chest. “They were all dead. Their father took them and left me behind ... I didn’t get enough of them.”

Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas positioning fighters in dense residential areas, but the strikes often come without warning in the middle of the night, killing women and children. US Vice President Kamala Harris has demanded Hamas agree to an immediate ceasefire in the conflict that has now killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Overnight, she met Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s wartime cabinet who is visiting Washington in defiance of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Photo: Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images