On Monday, October 16, 2023, seven civilians were killed, including a journalist of al-Aqsa TV Issam Mohammad Sabhi Bahar, two women and four children, and several others, including an infant, were injured, in an alleged Israeli airstrike on the Bahar family house near the Arab National Hospital in Gaza city.

A Facebook post by Asnaa Adel mourned the death of her relatives and reported the names of the victims: 38-year old Issam Mohammad Sabhi Bahar was killed together with his 33-year old wife Yasmin al-Seqali (Yasmeen Jamal Mahmoud Bahar), their 14-year old son Nizar Rayan Issam Bahar, Issam’s 21-year old sister Hanan Mohammad Bahar, and her three children.

It remains unknown how many people were injured and in what condition they were in. A family relative Iman Ali in his Facebook post shared the images of the wounded children, including an infant Yusra Bahar. He said that the rest of the family members are “injured or missing”.

The Journalists Support Committee condemned the killing of Issam Mohammad Bahar, who worked for the Al Aqsa TV channel, which is run by the Islamist group Hamas which controls the Gaza Strip. The International Federation of Journalists, Watan news and Al Mayadeen also reported about his death. Mohsen Alafranji wrote on the social platform Twitter/X that his fellow journalist was killed along with a number of his family members, as a result of an attack on a house where he was sheltering with his family.

Relatives and journalists left heartfelt tributes on Facebook. M.A. Mohammad Ibrahim described the death of “my friend and brother, the honorable Sheikh Issam Muhammad Bahar, with his wife and son – martyrs as a result of a Zionist bombing. He left for eternal paradise. May God accept you in Paradise,” attaching an image of the middle-aged man in an Islamic prayer hat and white shirt.

The journalist’s cousin, Asmaa Adel, recollected his religious activities too: “We will miss your voice, my cousin, as you give the call to prayer at the mosque and address people 😭😭 We will miss the kind and gentle face of his wife, Yasmine 😭😭 God chose the best people and took them to Him.”

Mustafa Matar wrote about his painful loss in his testimony: “My beloved friend Essam Muhammad Bahar was martyred.. You broke my back, Essam 😢”. The brother-in-law of the killed journalist, Muhammad Jamal Al-Sikali, wrote in his tribute: “The martyrdom of my sister Yasmine, her husband Sheikh Essam Muhammad Bahar, her son Nizar Bahar, and a number of martyrs from the Bahar family.”

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

Due to the scale and urgency of Airwars’ assessment process, all images have been automatically uploaded to each assessment with the graphic filter applied to protect users. We have also included all images identified from the sources, which may also include any imagery of combatants.

The local time of the incident is unknown.