Doctor collapses upon receiving his family’s bodies in Gaza
Dr. Iyad Shaqura, an emergency physician due to Israel Hamas war, collapsed after receiving his family's dead bodies.
Gaza: In a devastating and heart-wrenching incident in Khan Yunis of Gaza, Dr. Iyad Shaqura, originally pharmacist, now serving as an emergency physician, experienced an unimaginable loss. While he grown accustomed to the steady influx of casualties due to the ongoing conflict, Monday evening brought an unbearable sight. Dr. Shaqura fainted upon witnessing the arrival of his two children, his mother, and his two brothers at the emergency room.
This unspeakable tragedy unfolded when his family fell victim to a strike on their home in Khan Yunis, located in the southern Gaza Strip.
As the Palestinian territory faces heavy bombardment by Israel, with the aim of dismantling Hamas after a violent attack on southern Israel on October 7, Dr. Shaqura faced an incomprehensible loss.
On Tuesday morning, overcome with grief, Dr. Shaqura took one final look at his beloved family members, now resting in white shrouds on mortuary tables in the Nasser Hospital’s emergency room, as captured in AFPTV footage.
Pointing at each body, he painfully listed their names: “My mother, Zeinab Abu Dayya, my brothers Mahmud and Hussein Shaqura, my sister Israa and her two children Nabil and Nur, and my two children, the apple of my eye, Abdelrahman, seven, and Omar, five.”
With tears in his eyes, he continued, “I have five children, but he was my favorite,” resting his head on the lifeless body of Abdelrahman, whose shroud, like his brother’s, was open to the face.
In anguish, Dr. Shaqura questioned the circumstances, “What did they do to have tonnes of bombs and explosives dropped on their heads in their home?” He added with a sense of resignation, “God called them back to Him, like many other children before them.”
The recent data released by the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza reports that Israel’s bombing campaign has claimed over 10,300 lives, including 4,237 children, since October 7. The initial attack on southern Israel by Hamas, which prompted Israel’s response, resulted in over 1,400 casualties, as per Israeli officials, the majority being civilians.
