Israeli airstrike kills twins in mother's arms

RAFAH: 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 strike hit the home of her extended family in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Sunday, 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. The house collapsed.

‘‘I screamed for my children and my husband,’’ she said as she sobbed and cradled a baby’s blanket to her chest. ‘‘They were all dead. Their father took them and left me behind.’’

Israeli airstrikes have regularly hit crowded family homes since Israel started its bombardment of Gaza in retaliation to the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7. Even Rafah, which Israel declared a safe zone in October, is now a target of its devastating ground offensive. Strikes often come without warning, usually in the middle of the night.

Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and says Hamas positions fighters, tunnels and rocket launchers in dense residential areas. But the military rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children.

The military didn’t comment on this attack but said it ‘‘follows international law and takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm’’.

Of the 14 people killed in the Abu Anza house, six were children and four were women, according to Dr Marwan al-Hams, director of the hospital where the bodies were taken. In addition to her husband and children, Rania also lost a sister, a nephew, a pregnant cousin and other relatives.

Farouq Abu Anza, a relative, said about 35 people, some of whom had been displaced from other areas, were staying at the house. He said they were all civilians, mostly children, and that there were no militants there.

Rania and her husband, Wissam, both 29, spent a decade trying to get pregnant. Two rounds of IVF had failed, but after a third, she learnt she was pregnant early last year. The twins were born on October 13.

Her husband, a day labourer, was so proud he insisted on naming the girl after himself, she said.

‘‘I didn’t get enough of them,’’ she said. ‘‘I swear I didn’t get enough of them.’’

Less than a week before their birth, Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel in a surprise attack, rampaging through communities, killing some 1200 people – mostly civilians – and taking about 250 hostages, including children and a newborn.

Israel responded with one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history.

The war has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. About 80 per cent of the strip’s population of 2.3 million have fled their homes, and a quarter faces starvation.

Yesterday, US Vice President Kamala Harris demanded Hamas agree to an immediate six-week ceasefire. She also urged Israel to do more to boost aid deliveries into Gaza, where she said innocent people were suffering a humanitarian catastrophe.

Harris pressed the Israeli government and outlined specific ways more aid could flow into the densely populated enclave where hundreds of thousands of people are facing famine after five months of Israel’s military campaign.

‘‘Given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire,’’ Harris said. ‘‘There is a deal on the table, and Hamas needs to agree to that deal. Let’s get a ceasefire.

‘‘People in Gaza are starving. The conditions are inhumane and our common humanity compels us to act. The Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid.’’

AP, Reuters