Airwars assessment
On the evening of Saturday May 11th, 2024, an alleged Israeli airstrike on three houses belonging to Asaliya extended family located on Al Sikka Street in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip killed at least 32 members of the Asalia family, many of them women and children. Some reports put the death toll at 50 family members. Several other family members were injured, though the exact number of those wounded was not reported on.
Social media posts helped Airwars to identify 32 victims from Asalia family by name.
This includes 60-year-old Omar Kamel Hammad Asalia and Hadiya Muhammad Asalia, killed alongside a man who is likely Omar’s son, Ghazi Omar Asaliyya. Ghazi’s children, his young son, Ibrahim Ghazi Asalia, and his four daughters Hadiya Ghazi Asalia, Maha Ghazi Asalia, Dima Ghazi Asalia and Razan Ghazi Asalia were also reportedly killed. In photos shared of the family members Ibrahim and Hadiya were identified as children. The ages of the Ghazi’s other daughters are not known.
Another man, likely the son of Omar, Moin Omar Asalia was killed along with his daughter Ola Moein Asalia, and his sons, Alaa Moin Asalia, Mohamed Moin Asalia and Omar Moin Asalia.
Hamza Omar Asalia, another possible son of Omar, was killed in the alleged Israeli strike along with two sons, Mohammed Hamza Asalia and Mahmoud Hamza Asalia.
A male family member Sayed Kamel Hammad Asalia was reportedly killed as were his daughters, Saja Sayed Asalia, Shorouk Sayed Asalia and Doha Sayed Asalia, and his sons Ahmed Sayed Asalia and Younis Sayed Asalia.
Three women Hadeel Mahmoud Asalia, Mona Asalia, and Yasmine Munir Asalia were also reportedly killed in this strike. Two men Kamel Hammad Asalia and Kamal Qasim Al-Kafarneh were also killed.
Members of the Saadeh family, Fadi Shawky Saadeh, and his five sons, Muslima Fadi Saadeh, Moamen Fadi Saadeh, Ahmed Fadi Saadeh and Fadi Fadi Saadeh were also identified amongst those killed.
A family member, Youssef Asalia, shared dozens of photos of the victims from before the incident. Airwars identified at least ten children among these images killed in the incident.
In a post on Facebook, Khaled Ali Asalya also reported on the strike, listing the names of each of the relatives that he could confirm were killed that day. He also mentioned that “a number of martyrs are still missing” and that the rest of the family was “injured”.
Facebook user Abual Walid reported: “the Asalia family was martyred as a result of the Israeli bombing on Al-Sika Street in the city of Jabalia, north of the Gaza Strip” and shared a more extensive list with 26 members of the Asalia family allegedly killed in the bombing.
Clearer details of the alleged airstrike emerged after Issa Saadallah wrote an account of the incident on Al-Ayyam, a news website. According to that report, around 50 members of the Asalia family could have been killed “without any media fanfare due to the intensity of the bombing and the sudden invasion of the area”.
According to eyewitnesses interviewed by Al-Ayyam, the attack destroyed three houses inhabited by seven families and caused serious damage to the surrounding buildings. These witnesses declared that “the massacre occurred hours before the ground invasion of the area and that there was no security or military tension in the area”.
Mahmoud Asalia, a relative of the victims, stated to this same source that “the number of victims ranged between 35 and 50 martyrs, most of whom were children and women”, and that the destroyed houses belonged “to the children of the sixty-year-old citizen Omar Asalia, their wives and their sons, in addition to his daughters, their husbands and their sons”.
Mahmoud attested to the impossibility of any rescue operations by ambulances or civil defence teams because of alleged direct fire from military drones and Israeli artillery deployed east of the area. Mahmoud Asalia reported that “armoured forces” entered the surrounding area less than two hours after the airstrike and began “extensive bombing, destruction, and bulldozing operations that affected lands belonging to the Asalia, Khader, and Haj Ali families.”
Dozens of photos shared by Yousef Assaliya honoured the memory of several members of the Asalia family. Among these pictures is an image of an improvised headstone, made from rubble. The date of the strike, 11/05/2024, is written in marker on the piece of debris alongside the words “Martyrs of Asalia” and “Kamal Qasim”. Youssef wrote this caption alongside the post: “5/11/2024 is a day that broke my back. May God have mercy on a soul that has been exhausted by longing for it. May God have mercy on a soul that cannot be replaced and will never be born again. May God have mercy on unforgettable laughter, features that will never be forgotten, and conversations that we long to hear.”
He uploaded a new picture a few hours later, this time showing a handwritten list of over 30 of his killed relatives.
Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the strikes to Israeli forces.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Family members (9)
Family members (5)
Family members (6)
Family members (3)
Family members (5)
Family members (1)
The victims were named as:
Summary
Sources (13) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (29) [ collapse]
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Source: Yousef Assaliya