Mohammad Abu Al Qumsan quivered and gasped in disbelief.
Gaza
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“I beg you. I beg you. Let me see them,” he cried out to health officials at the medical facility on Tuesday.
“She just gave birth. Please let me see her.”
Hours earlier, the Palestinian father-of-two left his apartment in Deir al-Balah to collect birth certificates for his three-day-old twins – Aysal and Aser, a boy and a girl.
But while he was out, he said, he received a phone call that an Israeli strike had hit his home, killing the two babies, along with his wife, Jumana.
Footage filmed by a freelance journalist working for CNN showed dozens of mourners crowded around Al Qumsan at Al Aqsa Hospital.
Men attempt to console the bereft widower, gently stroking his forehead.
In another scene, Al Qumsan can be seen kneeling beside the shrouded bodies of the deceased, before performing Islamic funeral prayers with rows of worshippers.
His wife, a pharmacist, and the twins were among at least 23 people, including a nine-month-old baby, killed in several Israeli strikes in the area, according to hospital officials.
“May God unite you together in paradise my dear,” said one imam. “I swear to God you will be reunited with them in paradise and be with them forever.”
‘Unrelenting’ war on children
Al Qumsan is one of hundreds of thousands of survivors who have no time to mourn their loved ones against the backdrop of a 10-month Israeli offensive that has killed entire families, deepened a humanitarian crisis, and turned cities into wastelands.