'How could this be?' One afternoon in Gaza, many children's lives are ended

About 3pm last Friday, Dr Alaa al-Najjar, a pediatrician at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, received the charred remains of seven of her 10 children, killed in an Israeli airstrike.

- Lorenzo Tondo Jerusalem Malak A Tantesh Gaza

The remains of two others were buried beneath the rubble.

A few miles away, 11-year-old Yaqeen Hammad, known as Gaza's youngest social media influencer, was killed after heavy Israeli airstrikes hit the house where she lived with her family. She was watering flowers when she died. Her cousin, 16-year-old Eyad, was gravely wounded.

Even by the terrible standards of the Gaza conflict, the deaths had the power to shock. But they were also a reflection of a daily reality in the territory: the killing and maiming of its very youngest citizens and the destruction of a young generation.

According to local health officials, whose estimates have generally been found to be accurate by the global humanitarian community, more than 16,500 children have been killed in the 19 months since the war began - a figure almost 24 times higher than the number of children killed in Ukraine, where the population is 20 times bigger, since Russia's invasion. The World Health Organization tally for child deaths stands at 15,613.

Colleagues of Najjar say that since she lost her children she has spent her waking hours weeping outside a room in Nasser hospital. Inside lies her only surviving child, 11-year-old Adam, who is clinging to life with the help of a ventilator, his breathing shallow and more than 60% of his body covered in burns. Najjar's husband, Hamdi al-Najjar, a 40-year-old physician, also survived the strike but suffered severe injuries, including brain damage and fractures caused by shrapnel.

Reached by the Guardian, the Israel Defense Forces said "the Khan Younis area is a dangerous war zone" and that "the claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review".