Italy Welcomes Gaza Survivor Adam Najjar, 11, After Losing Entire Family in Israeli Airstrike
The Sole Surviving Child of a Palestinian Pediatrician, Adam Arrives in Rome for Treatment After Losing His Father and Nine Siblings in Khan Younis Bombing.
Watan-Rome awaits the arrival on Wednesday of 11-year-old Adam Najjar, who survived an Israeli airstrike that killed his father and his nine siblings in the Gaza Strip. He traveled with his mother to receive treatment.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Adam would arrive in Milan at 5:30 p.m. GMT “where he will be treated at Niguarda Hospital, as he suffers from fractures.”
The child is accompanied by his mother, pediatrician Alaa Najjar.
After their home in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, was bombed on May 23, Adam’s hand was amputated, and he suffered severe burns on parts of his body.
His nine siblings were killed in the airstrike, and his father, Dr. Hamdi Najjar, was critically wounded while the mother was at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. He passed away last week.
الناجي الوحيد من أطفالها العشرة.. الطبيبة آلاء النجار تغادر #غزة إلى #إيطاليا مع طفلها الجريح آدم لتلقي العلاج#حرب_غزة pic.twitter.com/OxNMJEBbVa
— قناة الجزيرة (@AJArabic) June 11, 2025
Dr. Alaa rushed home after hearing the explosion, only to find her children reduced to body parts beneath the rubble.
Speaking to Italy’s La Repubblica on Wednesday, she said: “I remember everything. Every detail, every minute, every scream… but when I think about it, the pain is unbearable. I try to focus only on Adam.”
When his mother asked him during the interview what he wanted, Adam replied that he wished to live “in a beautiful place where houses aren’t destroyed,” where he can go to school, and “where no one dies.”
He added: “A place where I can get surgery on my arm so I can use it again, and where my mom won’t be sad. I was told Italy is a beautiful place.”
The mother said she brought only a copy of the Qur’an, their identity documents, and Adam’s clothes. “I left behind everything that matters to me: my husband, my children, the hospital I worked in.”
She added: “In Gaza, people die of hunger, and when they don’t die of hunger, the airstrikes kill them. All we want is to live in peace.”
Around 55,000 Palestinians—mostly civilians—have been killed in Israel’s devastating war on Gaza, according to figures from the Palestinian Health Ministry, which the United Nations considers reliable.
The war erupted after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which killed 1,219 people according to official data.
Of the 251 people taken hostage that day, 54 remain in Gaza, 32 of whom have been confirmed dead, according to Israeli authorities.
