Mohammad Abu Al Qumsan quivered and gasped in disbelief. His eyes glazed over before he fell limp in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza.
“I beg you. I beg you. Let me see them,” he cried out to health officials at the medical facility on Tuesday.
“She just gave birth. Please let me see her.”
Hours earlier, the Palestinian father-of-two left his apartment in Deir al-Balah to collect birth certificates for his three-day-old twins – Aysal and Aser, a boy and a girl. But while he was out, he said, he received a phone call that an Israeli strike had hit his home, killing the two babies, along with his wife, Jumana, aged 28.
Footage filmed by a freelance journalist working for CNN showed dozens of mourners crowded around Al Qumsan at Al Aqsa Hospital. Men attempt to console the bereft widower, gently stroking his forehead.
In another scene, Al Qumsan can be seen kneeling beside the shrouded bodies of the deceased, before performing Islamic funeral prayers with rows of worshippers. His wife, a pharmacist, and the twins were among at least 23 people, including a nine-month-old baby, killed in several Israeli strikes in the area, according to hospital officials.
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