Father of twins killed by Israel asks what was his family's fault?

Footage of a distraught father weeping as he held the birth certificates of his newborn twins went viral on social media a few days back. Those few moments of grief have become the latest symbol of the devastating toll of the Israeli war on Palestinians.

On Tuesday, an Israeli air strike on a residential building in central Gaza killed three-day-old newborn twins while their father, Mohammed Abu al-Qumsan, had gone out to get their birth certificates.

Abu al-Qumsan left his wife, the infants and his mother-in-law in their fifth-floor flat in Deir al-Balah, which was bombed by Israeli forces.

Just as he was returning home, he received a phone call asking him if he was alright.

'"Where are you? The caller asked me and then said: They bombed your house, were you with your wife? Come, they are at al- Aqsa Martyrs Hospital'. I rushed to hospital", Abu al-Qumsan told TRT World.

"They had been martyred. I found them in freezers."

Abu al-Qumsan married Jumana, a pharmacist, in July of last year.

Their lives were disrupted by the war, which forced them to relocate constantly.

Despite a difficult pregnancy with twins, Jumana continued to volunteer at hospitals until her seventh month.

Abu al-Qumsan recalled how his wife had called to tell him of her pregnancy.

“She called me, and said: ’Mohammad bring the sweets! She showed me the test results, she was pregnant with twins, a boy and a girl,” he told TRT World.

“I loved her so much and she was the one who chose the names our babies.”

'Condemnation'

A US State Department official called the incident 'incredibly heartbreaking".

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) highlighted the toll on families in Gaza from Israel’s war on Thursday, describing the incident as a "nightmare".

"How many more children will be killed in Gaza or undergo indescribable suffering before the nightmare ends?" the agency’s executive director, Catherine Russell, said in a post on X.

"Heartbreaking to hear that newborn twins and their mother were among the latest casualties."

"It's past time for a ceasefire, and the unconditional release of hostages," she added.

Back in Gaza, Abu al-Qumsan was seen crying over the unused pink and yellow baby clothes of his children outside a blue tent in Al-Mawasi, an area designated by Israel as a humanitarian zone.

He never had the opportunity to share with his wife the legal names she had chosen for their babies: Aseer for the boy and Aysal for the girl.

"I wanted to send IDs and certificates via WhatsApp to my wife. I tried, but there was no internet, so I called her, but there was no connection," he told TRT World.

"What did my wife do to deserve dying along with our children? My children were just three days old. I had not celebrated them yet.

"She had not celebrated them."