Between the night of Tuesday, October 24, 2023, and the early hours of Wednesday, October 25, 2023, an alleged Israeli airstrike struck the Abu al-Saud family home in al-Shaboura Camp, central Rafah. The bombing killed as many as seven civilians. Dozens of others were reportedly injured and the building was destroyed. Two identified individuals, 31-year-old Qasim Ismail Musa Abu al-Saud and 21-year-old Musa Khaled Khalil Abu al-Saud were also killed and have been identified as militants.

Reports stated that the two victims, along with “a number” of injured civilians, were taken to Aby Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital. The injured reportedly numbered in the “dozens,” according to the posts by the Palestinian Joint Operations Room’s and news agency Safa’s Twitter/X accounts.

While most of the sources claimed that there were two deaths, a Facebook post by Emaa Imen contained an image taken by @abdallah.alattari999 with a caption saying that eight people were killed in the strike on the Abu al-Saud home.

Mourning relatives, including Qasim’s brother, Hani Abu al-Saud, and Qasim’s cousin and Musa’s uncle, Mohammed Abu Saud, shared tributes on Facebook. Mohammed noted that “there was a bombing that targeted our homes in Al-Shaboura Camp.” These posts included images of the victims: Qasim, with neatly combed dark hair and a beard, and Musa, a young man with a trimmed beard, wearing a fitted t-shirt and a green camouflage-patterned cap.

When Airwars first published this incident on June 8, 2025, no open sources were found to suggest that Qasim Ismail Musa Abu al-Saud or Musa Khaled Khalil Abu al-Saud were militants. As such, both men were recorded as civilians. This was in line with Airwars’ methodology which is employed across all conflicts we document, and informed by international standards regarding the ‘presumption of civilian status‘. Specifically, as outlined by the International Committee of the Red Cross, civilian status is assumed until evidence is identified to the contrary.

On May 17, 2026, a Telegram account affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), published a tribute to Qasim Ismail Musa Abu al-Saud, identifying him as a “commander”. As such, Airwars updated Mohammed Qasim Ismail Musa Abu al-Saud’s status from civilian to militant. On July 12, 2026, the same account posted a similar tribute to Musa Khaled Khalil Abu al-Saud, naming him as a militant. As such, his civilian status was also updated from civilian to militant.

Other tributes from Qasim’s cousins, Nedal Al-Ghazzawi and Islam Abu al-Saud, included a graphic image of Qasim’s body and pale face wrapped in a plastic bag and white cloth. In another post, Islam shared a video of a man whose clothes and body were ashen and covered in rubble, being carried on a stretcher by volunteers and first responders. Based on the beard and grey shirt seen in the earlier images, the man on the stretcher may have been Qasim.

A Facebook reel posted by Al-Arabiya Palestine captured the grief of Qasim’s mother, Hajja Zahdia Abu al-Saud. Overcome with sorrow, she clutches her chest and cries out for her son, resting her head on his shrouded body. Beside her, a woman holding a young boy extends a comforting arm around her as she continues to cry in anguish.

Images of the Abu al-Saud family home showed the house reduced to rubble, with volunteers surrounding the site. Taken in the dark, the photographs suggest the incident occurred late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning.

While the official Abu al-Saud family Facebook account commemorated “those who died yesterday…on Tuesday [October 24, 2023],” other sources, including SAFA, the Palestinian Press Agency, reported that the bombing continued until noon on Wednesday. A SAFA correspondent first reported Qasim and Musa’s deaths at approximately 7:55 AM on Wednesday.

Both names of the victims have been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) lists, which include national ID numbers. Since October 26, 2023, the MoH has released six lists, along with an additional list of medical professionals, which was released on September 17, 2024. Airwars matches individuals to the first list where their names appeared. Regarding this incident, names are matched to the first “Palestinian Ministry of Health List of Fatalities” released on October 26, 2023 and the seventh list released on October 23, 2024.

The ages of victims have also been found by cross-checking names against lists of fatalities shared online by Shireen Monitor, an organisation which has a list of “Martyrs of Palestine” from 2023 onward.

Where sources identified belligerents, all sources attributed the attack to the Israeli military.