On Tuesday, March 18, 2025, two civilians were killed during an alleged Israeli airstrike in the Saudi neighbourhood/Tel al-Sultan neighborhood, west of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Press Agency (Safa News Agency) reported at 06:32 a.m. on the strike and identified Ahmed Abdul Rahman Suleiman Mashawkh (18) and his brother Abdul Qader Abdul Rahman Suleiman Mashawkh (33) as both killed.

Many individuals, including family and friends of the deceased, turned to social media to share their grief with their online communities and to extend their condolences to the family.

Wesam Bassam Ayesh announced the death of his uncle’s sons and Abdul Halim Joudeh mourned his brother-in-law on Facebook, quoting the Quran: “Oh Allah, reward them for their loss and replace it with something better. May Allah give you patience, strengthen your hearts, and grant your martyrs the highest paradise”.

Moatasem Rayhan, who appears to have been a teacher of Ahmed, mentioned in his Facebook post that Ahmed was a very hardworking student and that he had “dreamt of getting a high score” in his national secondary school examination (“tawjihi”).

A commonly circulated photograph of Ahmed shows him standing outdoors, smiling toward the camera with sunlight slightly blinding his eyes. He had short, curly black hair and is dressed in a black knitted sweater layered under a purple hooded jacket. Abdul is depicted sitting by the beach, wearing a brown shirt. He had short, black-and-grey curly hair and is pictured looking gently toward the camera.

The photographs of them after the airstrike are more distressing. They show both men, very thin in appearance, covered in blood and dust, and lying motionless on the ground inside a building with their eyes open but unfocused. Both were wearing grey jogging trousers and hoodies and were in the process of being covered with white plastic sheets commonly used for the deceased.

Al Jazeera shared an image taken inside a room where several people are seen standing, sitting, or lying on the floor covered with blankets. At least two white plastic covers are visible, appearing to fully enclose bodies and suggesting that they contained the two brothers. The arrangement of blankets and other plastic covers indicates that the bodies were moved to this room after the strike. Although additional people are present in the image, local sources did not report any information regarding injured civilians resulting from this specific incident.

According to Genocide in Gaza, a website dedicated to the documentation of crimes in the Gaza Strip, the strike was conducted without prior warning.

The incident was covered by multiple local media outlets, including Safa News Agency, Livequds, Al Quds TV, Palestine Today TV and Al Hadath. The Palestine Red Crescent Society published a video on X/Twitter showing the arrival of the bodies of the two brothers.

Where possible, the 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 ten lists, along with an additional list of medical professionals, which was released on September 17, 2024. Airwars is matching individuals to the first list where their name appeared. In regard to this incident, the names of Ahmed and Abdul are matched to the eighth “Palestinian Ministry of Health List of Fatalities in Gaza,” which was released on March 24, 2025.

While various sources referred to the incident as a bombardment, some further described the strike as an airstrike or as a strike conducted by an aircraft.

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