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Airwars Assessment
On the evening of Tuesday, April 2, 2024, an alleged Israeli airstrike hit a residential apartment belonging to the Al-Muqaid family in the Al-Ittihad 2 building, west of the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. At least seven civilians were killed and three others were injured, all from the same extended family who were sheltering inside the apartment at the time of the strike.
Those killed include Hanan Muhammad al-Muqaid, aged 58, known by relatives as Umm Ali, the wife of Ramzi al-Muqaid (Abu Ali). She was killed alongside three of their children: Ali al-Muqaid, aged 19; Walaa al-Muqaid, aged 22; and Rawan al-Muqaid, aged 23, who was known as Umm Ashraf. Rawan was killed together with her two infant sons, one-and-a-half-year-old Ashraf Hossam Shaheen and Mohamed Hossam Shaheen, who was two months old. Two family members survived with injuries. 18-year-old Loay al-Muqaid, Hanan’s son, was reported to be moderately injured. Hussam Shaheen, described by relatives as a young man and the husband of Rawan al-Muqaid, was also moderately injured in the strike.
Another child relative, Fayeq Fayez Nofal, aged 10, was reported killed in the strike. His brother, Youssef, was seriously injured.
Following the attack, relatives and community members shared prayers and words of grief online. One widely shared message read: “There is no power nor strength save in Allah, the Most High, the Almightly”. Another post mourned the family, writing: “The wife of the late Ramzi al-Muqaid and her children were martyred together in the targeting of their apartment in Nuseirat. May God have mercy on them, and we ask for a speedy recovery for the injured.” Other posts emphasised the indiscriminate nature of the strike, noting that it resulted in the death of civilians who were not involved in hostilities. They cited the killing of Hanan, a “widow who did not pose a threat to anyone, her main concern in life was the happiness of her children and building their future.”
For the Al-Muqaid family, the strike wiped out a mother and four of her children and grandchildren in a single moment, leaving survivors injured and displaced amid the ruins of their home. As one mourner wrote simply beneath a family photograph “May God have mercy on you and give you patience.”
10-year-old Fayeq Fayez Noufal was remembered by his family through photographs shared after his death, showing him in ordinary moments of childhood before the strike. In one image, he stands on a beach beneath a clear blue sky, wearing a yellow t-shirt, light green shorts, and a dark baseball cap, looking to the side. Other photographs show him indoors, seated on a red playground slide with a gentle smile, and holding a paper in what appears to be a classroom. In a tribute posted on April 2, 2024, his uncle Mohammed Noufal mourned him, writing, “to God we belong and to Him we shall return,” and urging others to pray for mercy for Fayeq while also calling for prayers for the recovery of his injured brother.
Asmaa Othman declared Fayeq a unique child, someone she saw “as a little man.” She likened him to Moses, someone “killed […] before he was a prophet.”
Imagery shared in the aftermath depicted the exterior of the Al-Ittihad 2 building, showing blackened facades, shattered windows, and debris scattered across the street below.
All sources that identified a belligerent attributed the strike to Israeli forces.
Names were matched with the fourth publication of the Palestinian Ministry of Health List of Fatalities in Gaza, published on 30 April, 2024.