Gaza news: Newborn twins killed by Israeli strike just after father picks up birth certificates

Gaza news: Newly born twins were killed by an Israeli strike when their father went out to get their birth certificates.

Mohammed Abu Al-Qumsan had just picked up birth certificates for his newly-born twins when he found out they had been killed, along with his wife and her mother, by the strike on the Gaza apartment where they were sheltering, reported news agency Reuters.

He waved the laminated documents as a man held him while he wept at the morgue where their bodies were brought, the report said.

"My wife is gone, my two babies and my mother-in-law. I was told it's a tank shell on the apartment they were in, in a house we were displaced to," Reuters report said, quoting Abu Al-Qumsan, 31, as he recalled the devastating phone call.

“I did not get the chance to celebrate their arrival. Their clothes are new, they did not wear them,” he says, also showing a half-full pack of nappies.

Asser and Ayssel, a boy and a girl, were wrapped in white clothes as they were carried by their father and others. This has become a common sight in Gaza, where Israel's land and air campaign has put hundreds of thousands of people regularly on the move in search of shelter.

It has been 10 months since the Gaza war erupted and measures such as air strikes, artillery shells and severe shortages of medicine, food and clean water have brought one of the world's most densely populated places to its knees.

"Today, it was registered in history that the occupation army targets newborn children who are barely four days old, twins along with their mother and grandmother," Reuters reported quoting hospital doctor Khalil al-Daqran.

Israel however claims that it goes to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties and accuses Hamas of using humans as shields.

The Palestinian Iranian-backed militant group started the conflict in an October 7 cross-border raid on Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostage, the report said.

According to the report, Israel retaliated with airstrikes and attacks that have killed almost 40,000 people and wounded more than 92,000 and devastated the region.

(With inputs from Reuters)