Eleven members of the Khader family were reportedly killed and at least one other person, a woman, was injured in an alleged Israeli airstrike on their home behind Al-Najjar hospital in the Al-Geneina neighbourhood in Rafah, at dawn on October 21st 2023.

Khader family members were killed across three generations. Surviving family member Khalil Khader lost his four children: Ibrahim, aged nine; Amal, aged five; Kenan, aged two-and-a-half; and Rosa, 18 months. His 72 year-old father Ibrahim Shukri Suleiman Khader was also killed, alongside 23 year-old Mona Ibrahim Khader, 29 year-old Samar Abdullah Ali Khader (Al-Atrash) and Samar’s two daughters, Masa, aged two, and Lina, aged four. Initial reports claimed there were nine victims of the airstrike, as they did not account for the death of 33 year-old Louay Ibrahim Khader, husband to Samar and father to their children, who died on 25 October as a result of injuries sustained during the strike, as well as his 30 year-old sister Maysa Ibrahim Khader, whose body was not found until 24 November, on the roof of a neighbour’s house.

Asad Asad shared photos of the bodies of four children at the hospital, draped in white shroud, following the airstrike: “We will not apologize for the ugliness of the scenes! This is what happens in Gaza every moment / The photo is from the Khader family massacre in Rafah at dawn today.”

In a Facebook post, Khalil Khader shared photos of his family, with the caption, “My moons, if I had my hand, I would hide you in my heart, but God’s will is for you to be martyrs.. The meeting place is heaven. May God have mercy on you and forgive you. We belong to Allah and to Him we shall return.. Allah suffices me and He is the best disposer of affairs.”

Speaking to the BBC, Khalil recalled the events of the night of the airstrike, as he was working at nearby Al-Najjar hospital as a computer engineer: “A massive bomb exploded (…) my neighbours were coming to the hospital. So I asked ‘Where was the bombing?’ And they told me, ‘It was around your house.’ I had to run to the location to check on the family. I tried calling but no one was answering. And as you can see… the whole house was bombed.” According to the article published on October 31st, in the place of the house “is now a mound of masonry and metal, household objects and some children’s toys. A small drum. A toy piano.”

Khalil added that in 2014, the neighbours’ house was bombed while his wife was pregnant “in her seventh month and almost fell down the stairs from the blast. And I was thinking, how can I bring children into this life? (..) I had a dream for each of my kids. Ibrahim was first in his school and I dreamed about seeing him as a doctor one day. Amal was very creative, she loved drawing. And she used to show me her drawings, and sometimes I would draw with her. Kenan was very playful – everyone loved him. And he used to take care of his little sister. He was always there to protect Rosa, and would say, ‘Don’t touch her, she’s my baby!’ And now they are all gone.” At the time of the interview, Khalil’s wife was being treated in hospital for her injuries sustained in the airstrike, and he was still searching for the body of his sister, Maysa.

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.