During the afternoon of Tuesday, October 10th, 2023, a home of the Abu Mathkour family located in the Al Shouka neighbourhood, east of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, was hit by an alleged Israeli airstrike, killing at least five identified men, three of whom’s civilian status is contested and two of whom was a militant.

Rafah Municipality shared images of the rescue efforts carried out by the crews of the Central Emergency Committee in Rafah Governorate. Rescuers in orange clothes were seen inspecting the rubble left from the building bombed.

The victims of the deadly attack were named as 25-year-old Walid Tawfiq Salameh Abu Suhaiban, 26-year-old Abdel Fattah Youssef Abu Mathkur, 54-year-old Youssef Raed Youssef Abu Mathkur, 36-year-old Muhammad Youssef Abd al-Fattah Abu Mathkur, and 34-year-old Shadi Talal Nadi Al-Arami. A post by Fady Fouad referred to Muhammad Youssef Abu Mathkur, Abdel Fattah Youssef Abu Mathku, and Youssef Raed Abu Mathkour as “mujahids”. However, there was no additional evidence of their participation in militant activities. Until new information comes to light, Airwars has counted their civilian/militant status as “contested”.

Ahmed Abu Mathkour reported to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed News that the [Israeli] forces allegedly bombed a house in the Al-Shouka area without prior notice. Despite the efforts to recover the bodies, there were still people under the rubble at the time of the report. He added: “We were able to extract the two martyrs, Shadi Al-Armi and Walid Tawfiq Abu Suhaiban. After several hours, we were able to bring out Abdel Fattah Youssef Abu Mathkur, also a martyr.”

Following the incident in Rafah, Gaza, numerous social media posts mourned the loss of friends and family members who were killed, including Ahmad Mohammad, a brother-in-law of Shadi Al-Arami; Saher Tareq, a nephew of Shadi; and another brother-in-law of Shadi named Abdallah Abu Mohammad who referred to him as the “intrepid knight”.

Sabreen Yusuf Mathkour mourned the deaths of his brothers Muhammad and Abdel and his nephew Youssef Raed.

When Airwars first published this incident on October 10, 2023, no open sources were found to definitely say if any individuals identified in this incident were militants. As such, two were recorded as civilians and three with contested militant status. 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 March 19, 2026, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) published a list of commanders killed since October 7, 2023. Shadi Talal al-Arami was among those named. He was described as a ‘Field Platoon Commander – Eastern Battalion – Rafah Brigade’. As such, he has been recorded as a militant.

On July 21, 2026, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) published a nearly identical tribute to Walid Tawfiq Salameh Abu Suhaiban, identifying him as a fighter. was among those named. As such, Airwars updated status from civilian to militant and changed the number of civilians reportedly killed in this incident accordingly. As all individuals identified in this incident were either militants or individuals with contested civilian status, the civilian harm status for this incident was changed to ‘contested’. This will be updated should additional information become available.

Where possible, names have been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of fatalities in Gaza released on October 26th, 2023.

Where sources identified a belligerent, all sources attributed the strike to Israeli forces. According to Ahmed Abu Mathkour, the strike occurred without prior warning.