On Tuesday, October 29th 2023, at least 21 members members of the Thabet family, including four women and ten children, were killed and several civilians were injured in an alleged Israeli airstrike on the Thabet family home near Abu Jaber roundabout in the al-Zawaida area of the central Gaza Strip. Airwars identified 21 family members by name, though at least one source put the death toll as high as 35.

On October 29th @ShehabAgency tweeted that there were “at least 10 martyrs and a number of wounded when [Israel] targeted a house for the “Ghanem” family in Al-Bureij, and another for the “Thabet” family in al-Zawaida in the central Gaza Strip a short while ago.” On Facebook, the al-Rai news agency reported that “Israeli…aircraft bombed a house belonging to the Thabet family over the heads of its residents in the al-Zawaida area (central Gaza Strip), and civil defense crews have recovered 5 martyrs so far.”

Multiple sources shared a video of rescuers frantically carrying a casualty wrapped in a sheet toward an ambulance arriving at the scene. Two days later, sources reported that “17 martyrs who arrived at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital were recovered from under the rubble of the Thabet family home, which was bombed by [Israeli] aircraft two days ago in the al-Zawaida area in the central Gaza Strip.”

The day after the alleged strike, Twitter/X user @IamAmjadd shared more details about the devastating human impact of the attack, writing that “a house was bombed in al-Zawaida, specifically the Abu Jaber roundabout belonging to the Thabet family. There are 50 people in the house. Their only daughter is married to a second family. She was summoned today to identify the four bodies that were exhumed, and the rest are fragments of body parts. The shock was that she was unable to even recognize her father and mother.”

On Facebook, Talib Thabat wrote that “thirty-five members of the family of my cousin Adel Muhammad Thabet were martyred: Adel Muhammad Thabet and his wife, and his children and their wives, and his daughters and their husbands, and his grandchildren. His home in Gaza was bombed, including nineteen children.”

Social media testimonies by family and friends helped to identify the names of 21 victims within the Thabet family.

Adel Muhammad Jibreen Thabet (69), his wife, Sabah Omar Ali Thabet (64), and five of their sons, Muhammad Adel Muhammad Thabet (35), Bilal Adel Muhammad Thabet (22), Abdul Rahman Adel Muhammad Thabet (19), Moaz Adel Muhammad Thabet (31), and Tariq Adel Muhammad Thabet (39), were killed.

Friends and loved ones mourned the death of 39-year-old Tariq Thabet, an engineer awarded a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship through the Fulbright Exchange Program. On Facebook, Monther Abu Sultan wrote “My dear friend Tariq Thabet, a school and university friend, died as a martyr… along with everyone who was with him in his house in the central region.”

Sharing a smiling photo of Tariq in a suit, Muhammad al-Shorbaji wrote “The great engineer and first leader Tariq Thabet, a martyr, preceded us to heaven.” Hani Abu Omar posted another photo of Tariq, writing “With all expressions of sadness and sorrow, I mourn my friend, brother, and beloved, engineer Tariq Thabet, along with his wife, children, parents, and a number of his family members, who were martyrs, God willing.”

According to social media testimonies, Tariq’s wife (age unknown), their son, Adel Tariq Adel Thabet (9), and their two daughters, Tala Tariq Adel Thabet (11) and Juri Tariq Adel Thabet (7) were also killed.

Adel and Sabah’s daughter, Bayan Adel Muhammad Thabet (40), was also killed in the attack as well as her five children – three sons, Bashir Adham Bashir Thabet (17), Munther Adham Bashir Thabet (15), and Muhammad Adham Bashir Thabet (8), and her two daughters Retaj Adham Bashir Thabet (13) and Razan Adham Bashir Thabet (4).

Another daughter of Adel and Sabah named Tasneem Adel Thabet (27) was killed along with her husband, Khalil Yahya al-Batsh (28), and their two daughters, Elaf Khalil al-Batsh (2) and Retal Khalil al-Batsh (1).

On December 16th the Gaza Martyrs account tweeted two photos of Khalil Yahya al-Batsh, one of which shows him holding a bouquet and wearing his graduation robes, while the other shows him posing with famed Palestinian writer, professor, and poet, Refaat Alareer, who himself was killed in an Israeli airstrike on December 6th 2023.

The post stated “The martyr Khalil Yahya al-Batsh is a writer and academic researcher in cultural studies and English literature studies, a memorizer of the Quran. He was appointed as a lecturer at the Islamic University a month before his martyrdom. He aspired to complete his studies abroad and was accepted in several universities, but the siege and restrictions imposed on Gaza prevented him from achieving this.”

Gaza Martyrs added that Khalil “was living a happy life with his wife, Tasneem, and his two daughters, Elaf and Rital. Israel killed this life, killing Khalil, his wife, and his two daughters. One of the students of the martyr Refaat Alareer”.

Mourning Khalil’s death, his brother, Ahmed al-Batsh shared a photo of Khalil smiling and wearing graduation robes. Ahmed wrote “Oh God, reward us in our misfortune. The martyrdom of my brother, Professor Khalil Yahya al-Batsh. And his wife, Tasneem Adel Thabet. His daughter, Elaf Khalil al-Batsh. His daughter, Rital Khalil al-Batsh. We belong to Allah and to Him we shall return.”

Twitter/X user @itranslate123 shared a photo of Khalil standing in front of a map of Palestine and wrote “Khalil Al-Batsh is a fine translator and one of my brilliant MA students and a colleague. Israel murdered him with his wife, kids, mother, two brothers.”

Where possible, Airwars has matched names with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of nearly 7000 victims’ names and ID numbers released on October 26th, 2023.

Where sources identified the belligerent, the strike was attributed to Israeli forces.

The incident occured at approximately 6:33 pm local time.