On October 13, 2023, an alleged Israeli airstrike on the Abu Jazar family house located in Badri camp west of the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip killed at least 13 civilians belonging to Abu Jazar family, including at least three women and at least four and up to six children. According to the Facebook tribute by Olifat Soleiman, a grandfather of the family, a 68-year old Juma Sirhan Khalil Abu Jazar was killed together with his five sons, their wives and his grandchildren.

Quds news Twitter/X post showed the bodies covered with white cloth and at least two injured civilians in a hospital,and explained that this was a “new massacre… 10 Palestinians from the Abu Jazar family died”.  A Twitter/X post by @Paldf also featured a video with the bodies of the people from the Abu Jazar family.

Initially local sources reported about 6-10 killed civilians, but later the social media account of Abu Jazar family provided the names of the 14 identified victims, out of them at least 13 having a civilian status. Among them were the late Juma’s eldest son, a 38-year old Ahmed Abu Jazar together with his wife, a 25-year old Yousra Samir Abu Jazar. The late Juma’s other son, a 30-year old Rabie Juma Abu Jaza was killed with his 23-year old wife Islam Mahmoud Abu Jazar and their children – a 3-year old daughter Sham Rabie Abu Jazar and a 6-year old son Yamen Rabie Abu Jazar. The late Juma’s other son, a 32-year old Mahmoud Jumah Sirnan Abu Jazar lost his life together with his 32-year old wife Nariman Ismail Mahmoud Abu Jazar and apparently their children, an 8-year old daughter Ghalia Mahmoud Jumah Abu Jazar, a 4-year old son Abdul Salam Mahmoud Abu Jazar as well as Yemeni Mahmoud Abu Jazar and ٍRoya Mahmoud Abu Jazar, about whom there is no additional information.

Among the victims were also an 18-year old Juma Anis Juma Abu Jazar and a 21-year old Ahmed Anis Juma Abu Jazar, apparently also the sons of Juma Sirhan Abu Jazar. They are portrayed as young men in elegant suits in the images attached to Olifat Soleiman’s post.

The late family’s head Juma Sirhan Abu Jazar appears on an image attached to the Olifat Soleiman’s post as an elderly man with a moustache in a grey shirt and an embroidered vest. He used to have a Facebook account with 2,400 friends.

Ahmed Abu Jazar is described in social media tributes as a freed prisoner who was released only a year ago after 19 (or 20, according to some sources) years of detention. Hassan Badawi wrote in his Facebook tribute: “The rise of the beloved brother, friend, and cellmate, Ahmed Abu Jazar”, and shared a photo of Abu Jazar in military uniform with a gun in his hand; meaning he may have been a militant in the past. Mohammed Kareem in his post referred to the late Ahmed as “freed captive cousin”.  Zeko Abu Jazar wrote his testimony to the “freed prisoner” and shared an image of Ahmed where he was apparently giving an interview.

Given the image of Ahmed Abu Jazar wearing military uniform with a weapon, he has been accounted for as a militant in Airwars’ upper belligerent range, though not in the lower range as this could not yet be confirmed by other sources. He has also not been included in the lower casualty range. See our methodology for more details on classification of militants and civilians. The range will be updated should further information come to light.

Rabie Juma Abu Jaza was remembered in a Facebook testimony by Ismael Abu Jazar where he was described as a “decent young man”.

Where possible, Airwars has matched names with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of nearly 7000 victims’ names and ID numbers released on October 26th.

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