On October 17, 2023, six-year-old Aya (Ayat) Muhammad Awni Abu Aoun and her five-year-old brother Abdullah Muhammad Awni Abu Aoun died in an alleged Israeli airstrike that impacted their home in the Gaza Strip. Though sources did not include a specific location for the strike, Facebook user Al-Bureij Gathering remembered the children as “beautiful martyrs of Bureij camp”, signifying that they lived – and were perhaps killed – in Bureij camp.

Numerous pictures of the children shared on social media depicted them as joyful young children, posing happily for the camera, always together, dressed in colorful clothing, and smiling.

According to a Facebook post from their father, Mohammed A. Oun, on November 14, the children’s bodies were recovered from under the rubble, nearly a month after the alleged strike:

“Only in Gaza.. Children are martyred. They spent about a month under the rubble. Then their decomposed bodies were extracted. Because communications are often completely or partially cut off, crews picked them up according to their available capabilities, at the available time, and by who attended. Their parents find out the day after they are buried. And so.. the martyrs #Aya and #Abdullah left without saying goodbye..

Between the 17th of October and the 14th of November, the story of the temporary cemetery in the rubble of the shattered house ended… so the story of loss that will never end for my little loved ones… the soul of the heart and its fragrance began.

Oh God, grant us strength.. O God, strength over what we cannot be patient with.”

Mohammed further wrote of his inability to accept that his children – “pieces of [his] heart” – were left under heavy debris, “under tons crushing their tender hearts”. For this, Mohammed wrote, they were “not buried like martyrs, nor were they saved like the living and wounded”.

Other relatives and friends expressed their sorrow on social media, sharing heartfelt messages with the children’s family along with photographs of them. Dyaa Abo Oun sent his ”sincere condolences and sympathy to [his] dear cousin” Mohammed, on the loss of his children, and Dr. Omar Ouda Al-Hindi asked that God “grant patience to [Mohammed’s] heart”.

Public social media pages, such as the @GazaMartyrsTwitter account, also shared the children’s photographs, including one of the siblings holding hands dressed in school uniforms.

The strike status has been graded as a “likely strike” by Airwars due to the repetition of sources that mentioned Israel as being responsible for the strike, with the Civilian Harm Status as “fair” due to multiple different sources mentioning the civilian harm.

Both Aya and Abdullah were matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) lists, which include national ID numbers. Since October 26, 2023, the MoH has released six lists, along with an additional list of medical professionals, which was released on September 17, 2024. Airwars matches individuals to the first list where their name appeared. In regard to this incident, Aya and Abdullah were matched to the second “Palestinian Ministry of Health List of Fatalities in Gaza”, which was released on January 7th, 2024.