A Palestinian doctor living in Meath has spoken of his loss after four of his family members were killed in Israeli strikes overnight.
Dr Mahmoud Abumarzouq's two nephews and two nieces died after their Rafah home collapsed during the attack.
Their mother, Saham, was injured and spent three hours under rubble. She is currently in ICU.
Mahmoud says doctors have yet to tell Saham that all of her children are now dead.
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Speaking in the front room of his Navan home, Dr Abumarzouq, who works as an orthopaedic surgeon, says he got the call early this morning.
"I woke up to find my phone full of messages and international phone calls. It alerted me that there is something wrong going on," he adds.
At first he was told his sister, Saham, was among the dead, but later informed she was alive in ICU but that all four of her children had been killed.
Noor was 25 years old and an English teacher, while 23-year-old Dina was studying design.
16-year-old Mohamed had just finished his school exams while Refat, 14, was also a student.
"They are very lovely, very cheerful, full of energy. They are very enthusiastic for their future," Mahmoud says.
"The grief and sorrow I'm feeling, I think is unbearable, and I don't think there is anyone in the world feeling what I'm feeling right now. It is really a pain in my soul … I can't bear all this pain and sorrow."
RTÉ News first spoke to Mahmoud earlier this year, asking him his thoughts on the ceasefire.
His brother, Ahmed, was killed in the war last year, and Mahmoud was hopeful the ceasefire would hold. That optimism is now well and truly gone.
"It is devastating .. there is no protection for these people. They are not harming anyone. They are civilians. Where is all these international laws we're hearing about? Where is the woman protections? Where children protections?
"It should be stopped now," he says.
Noor had just given birth to a baby girl, Yaukt, three days ago.
Mahmoud said the baby had given the family a new hope for the future, but all of that is now gone, he says.
Yaukt survived the overnight strikes, but has been left without a mother - one more victim of this war.
