An alleged Israeli airstrike that hit the residential apartment of the Abu Shamala family in the Al-Nasmawi neighbourhood of Khan Yunis during the evening of October 9th 2023 killed between four and five members of the family, including at least three children, and injured up to seven others.

Several local sources reported that multiple members of the Abu Shamala family were killed. Four of those killed have been identified as Fatima Fauzi Abu Shamala (39 years old) and her children – her two daughters, 16 year old Tasnim Ibrahim Abu Shamala and 6 year old Yasmine Ibrahim Abu Shamala, and her son, 14 year old Mahmoud Ibrahim Abu Shamala. One other son, Elias Ibrahim Abu Shamala, was mentioned in a Facebook post by his uncle as being in serious condition while one of the family’s neighbours posted that all four children were killed. Accordingly, Airwars has recorded the number of civilians killed as 4-5, and injured as 0-1.

Tasnim’s teacher posted a message memorializing her, and mentioned that she was an excellent student.

Multiple reports mentioned that seven civilians were injured, with only one named civilian, Elias, identified as injured. Footage is available of members of the family being pulled from the rubble after the strike, but their conditions are not clear. Relatives of the deceased posted on Facebook mourning the victims of the strike.

The family is survived by Fatima’s husband Ibrahim Saeed Awad Abu Shamala.

Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the strikes to Israeli forces.

While Airwars has matched Fatima, Tasnim, Mahmoud and Yasmine’s names with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of nearly 7000 victims’ names and ID numbers released on October 26th, Elias’ name was not found in that list.