22/02/2024, 15:14 'Dad, please don't go out': The Gazans killed as Israel freed hostages - BBC News

Home News Sport Earth Reel

Home Israel-Gaza war War in Ukraine Climate Video World More

US & Canada UK Business Tech

World Africa Asia Australia Europe Latin America Middle East

'Dad, please don't go out': The

Gazans killed as Israel freed
hostages
1 day ago

Israel-Gaza war

AL-NAJJAR FAMILY

Abed-Alrahman al-Najjar was killed on 12 February

By Fergal Keane
BBC News, Jerusalem

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68355125 1/10
22/02/2024, 15:14 'Dad, please don't go out': The Gazans killed as Israel freed hostages - BBC News

When Israeli special forces rescued two of the hostages kidnapped by

Hamas, there was relief for their families and a boost for national morale.
But the rescue on 12 February has left angry feelings in Gaza, where more
than 70 people were reported killed on the night.

Warning: Readers may find some of the details below distressing.

Nawara al-Najjar was asleep in the tent that had been her family's home in
Rafah for the last five weeks, just a few hundred metres away from the site of
the rescue raid.

Lying on the ground were Nawara, who is six months pregnant, her six children
- ranging in age from 13 to four - and her husband Abed-Alrahman.

They had fled from their home in Khan Younis, about 9km (6 miles) north,
following the instructions of the Israel Defense Forces who said Rafah was a
safe area.

Before falling asleep, the couple discussed what to do about two of their
children who had been injured. Their son had been burned by scalding food,
and their daughter was recovering from facial paralysis caused by trauma in
the early stages of the war.

Before they became refugees, Abed-Alrahman did whatever work he could

find to support his family, often as a labourer on farms.

They were a strong couple who always tried to solve problems together.

"My husband was anxious, thinking about how he would find a way to treat
them and where to take them," Nawara says. "Our neighbours said they
wanted to take my daughter to a doctor for treatment… So, we decided that
he would be in charge of our son, and I would be in charge of my daughter."

Then something unusual happened. Nawara usually slept surrounded by the

children. But that night, Abed-Alrahman asked to change the arrangement.
"Before he went to sleep, he asked me to come and sleep next to him. It was
the first time he said, 'Come sleep with me'."

They fell into the exhausted sleep of refugee life. Then shortly before 02:00
(00:00 GMT), Nawara woke to the sound of shooting.

Abed-Alrahman said he would go out and see what was happening.

Nawara says: "Our oldest son was telling him, 'Dad, please don't go out'.
[Abed-Alrahman] was trying to reassure him that nothing would happen; my
son was telling him not to go out, that he would die."

Then she felt a searing pain in her head. Shrapnel from an explosion had
ripped into the tent.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68355125 2/10
22/02/2024, 15:14 'Dad, please don't go out': The Gazans killed as Israel freed hostages - BBC News

Nawara started screaming. At first she could not see anything. After some
minutes her vision returned in time to see Abed-Alrahman in his death throes.
She remembers the "rattle" of his final breaths.

"When my children first saw him, they were screaming, 'Oh, father, oh father,
don't leave us, don't leave us'. I told them, 'Stay away from your father. Just
pray for him'."

Daughter Malak, aged 13, was hit in the eye by a splinter of shrapnel. Four
other children sustained minor wounds. They also endured the trauma of what
they heard and saw - the explosions and their father being carried away to
hospital. Later that night, in a hospital filled with other victims, it was
confirmed to Nawara that Abed-Alrahman was dead.

What we know about Israel's Rafah hostage rescue raid

‘Without painkillers, we leave patients to scream for hours’

Relief and guilt after Gazans find safety in Egypt

Weeping, she asks: "What was his sin? What was his children's sin? What's my
sin? I became a widow at 27.

Malak says she was taken to three different hospitals to try and get treatment,
but she lost her eye.

"I was not treated immediately. Only after three days was my surgery
performed. I was injured in the eye and I was also shot in my waist. I'm in pain,
pain, pain."

Then Malak became distraught, and cried out: "I lost my dad. Enough!"

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68355125 3/10
22/02/2024, 15:14 'Dad, please don't go out': The Gazans killed as Israel freed hostages - BBC News

Malak al-Najjar, aged 13, lost an eye on the same night of the Israeli military raid

According to the health ministry, run under the direction of the Hamas
government in Gaza, at least 74 people were killed during the raid in the early
hours of 12 February.

It is not possible to say precisely how many of the dead were civilians and how
many were fighters. But witnesses and medical sources suggest a high
proportion of the dead were non-combatants. The independent Palestinian
Centre for Human Rights, based in Gaza, using details obtained from hospital
lists, says 27 children and 22 women were among those killed.

Mohammed al-Zaarab, 45, a father-of-10 from Khan Younis, also fled to Rafah
believing it would be safe. He remembers being woken in his tent by the
intensity of the assault. "They were shelling with helicopters, with F-16 jets …
My son was shot in his hand. Our neighbour was shot in the head."

The following day, Mohammed's elderly father felt unwell. He took him to the
doctor, but soon after the old man died of a heart attack. "I buried him. Today
is the third day in his grave. Why is this happening to us?" he asks.

The International Medical Corps - which provides emergency aid in crisis zones
around the world - runs a field hospital near the scene. Dr Javed Ali, a surgeon
from Pakistan, was jolted awake by the first strikes and went to shelter in a
safe room in the staff quarters near the hospital.

"Aside from the air strikes, we were hearing tanks in the background, there was
active exchange of fire from small firearms, as well as a helicopter gunship
that was going over the hospital fighting and firing in all directions. So, it was
very, very scary. We thought that this was it."

Hearing the sound of ambulances, the medics decided to leave the safe room
and help. Along with the wounded came women and children seeking shelter.

"The hospital itself is a tent structure. So there were a lot of concerns.

Obviously, if there is any strike towards the hospital it will be devastating, but
we had to make a decision to save as many patients as possible."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68355125 4/10
22/02/2024, 15:14 'Dad, please don't go out': The Gazans killed as Israel freed hostages - BBC News

Nawara al-Najjar, sitting with some of her children, was injured by shrapnel that ripped into her tent on
12 February

Many of the dead were thought to be still lying under the rubble of destroyed
houses. Another doctor - from the international agency Médecins Sans
Frontières - sent a series of anguished voice messages to colleagues in London
after sunrise on 12 February.

She described lying across her children's bodies to protect them as shrapnel
flew through the windows of the room where they were sheltering. The doctor
has given the BBC permission to quote the messages but wants to remain
anonymous.

Her account of what she found after the raid is harrowing.

"At our home when we were checking, I found pieces of human flesh. We found
a whole lower limb belonging to a human that we don't know who he is. When
I saw the pieces of flesh on the floor, I cried."

Since the beginning of the IDF incursion into Gaza, the military has accused
Hamas of using the civilian population as human shields, and using medical
facilities to conceal military operations and hide hostages.

The rescue of two hostages - Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Har, 70 -
in Rafah this month was a rare success for the Israeli teams searching for more
than 130 people, including two children, still believed to be held captive.

In a statement to the BBC about the events of 12 February, an IDF spokesman

said it was "committed to mitigating civilian harm" during military operations.
Military lawyers advised commanders so that strikes complied with
international legal obligations.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68355125 5/10
22/02/2024, 15:14 'Dad, please don't go out': The Gazans killed as Israel freed hostages - BBC News

The statement says: "This process is designed to ensure that senior

commanders have all reasonably available information and professional advice
that will ensure compliance with the Law of Armed Conflict, including by
providing 'Target Cards' which facilitate an analysis that is conducted on a
strike-by-strike basis, and takes into account the expected military advantage
and the likely collateral civilian harm, amongst other matters.

"Even where circumstances do not allow for a targeting process involving this
level of deliberate pre-planning and pre-approval, IDF regulations emphasise
that commanders and soldiers must still comply with the Law of Armed
Conflict."

@BRINGHOMENOW

Israeli hostages Fernando Simon Marman and Louis Har were reunited with their families shortly after
being rescued on 12 February

Human rights organisations have previously accused Israel of using

disproportionate force. In a statement on 8 February - four days before the
hostage raid - Human Rights Watch warned that Israel "might be carrying out
unlawfully indiscriminate attacks. When it comes to the question of whether
Israel is violating the law in Gaza, there is enough smoke to suspect a fire".

In December US President Joe Biden warned Israel against "indiscriminate

bombing" in Gaza.

Any legal deliberation on whether the raid constituted a disproportionate use

of force, and therefore a war crime, must await an independent investigation.
With no end to the war in sight, that process may take a long time.

The anonymous MSF doctor who found body parts in her home is deeply
pessimistic.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68355125 6/10
22/02/2024, 15:14 'Dad, please don't go out': The Gazans killed as Israel freed hostages - BBC News

"To be honest, the one who died is the one who is lucky… the one who is left
has been cursed and abandoned by all people around the world. It's not fair… I
don't know how anybody can sleep knowing that our kids are suffering for
nothing. We are only civilians."

Her message comes from inside the frightened, claustrophobic confines of

Rafah, where 1.5 million people - six times its normal population - have sought
shelter.

Israel is threatening an invasion of Rafah in the next few weeks, necessary, it

says, to destroy Hamas. The fear for the refugees is that the horror of 12
February will soon be overtaken by new miseries, and forgotten by the
international community.

"I know that this message means nothing to a lot of people," the MSF doctor
says, "and will change nothing".

With additional reporting by Alice Doyard, Haneen Abdeen and Gidi Kleiman.

Related Topics

Israel-Gaza war Israel Gaza

More on this story

What we know about Israel's Rafah
hostage rescue raid

12 February

Relief and guilt after Gazans find safety in

Egypt

4 days ago

Top Stories
Navalny's mother says Second Alabama clinic Thousands report
she has been shown pauses IVF treatments issues with US mobile
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68355125 7/10
22/02/2024, 15:14 'Dad, please don't go out': The Gazans killed as Israel freed hostages - BBC News

his body services

26 minutes ago 1 hour ago 58 minutes ago

Features

On board the plane Rosenberg: How two The Taylor Swift drag
evacuating injured years of war have tribute dazzling Asia
Palestinians changed Russia

Sahil Omar: The real Historical sites in

story behind a fake Afghanistan
criminal ‘bulldozed for looting’

Family share ‘I miss you’: Ukraine’s Olivia Colman on why

memories of Kenya’s children orphaned by sweary letters were
marathon legend Russian missile original trolling

Moment giant
Antarctica drone takes
off

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68355125 8/10
22/02/2024, 15:14 'Dad, please don't go out': The Gazans killed as Israel freed hostages - BBC News

Elsewhere on the BBC

Why Gen Z are The world map The seedy underbelly

dressing like Mob created by a man who of life coaching
Wives never left home

Most Read

1 Navalny's mother says she

has been shown his body 2 Canadian man gets life for
killing Muslim family

3 Whale song mystery solved

by scientists 4 Kremlin lashes out after
Biden aims barb at Putin

5 Rosenberg: How two years

of war have changed Russia 6 Thousands report issues
with US mobile services

7 Footballer Dani Alves

guilty of nightclub rape 8 Gabby Petito's parents
settle Laundrie civil case

9 Former world's oldest dog

stripped of title 10 Biden's dog bit Secret
Service agents 24 times

BBC News Services

On your mobile On smart speakers

Get news alerts Contact BBC News

Home News Sport Earth Reel

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68355125 9/10
22/02/2024, 15:14 'Dad, please don't go out': The Gazans killed as Israel freed hostages - BBC News

Worklife Culture Music Weather

Travel Future TV Sounds

Terms of Use About the BBC Privacy Policy Cookies Accessibility Help Parental Guidance

Contact the BBC Get Personalised Newsletters Why you can trust the BBC Advertise with us

Do not share or sell my info

© 2024 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external
linking.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68355125 10/10