On Sunday morning, October 22nd, 2023, an alleged Israeli airstrike on Gaza City’s Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood hit the family home of municipal mayor of Gaza City Yahya al-Sarraj, killing his son, photo-journalist and a founder of Ain Media company Rushdi al-Sarraj (31), and injuring other members of the family, including women and children. Al Jazeera reported that the family home of Yahya al-Sarraj was severely damaged. Rushdi’s father Yahya al-Sarraj told Al Jazeera that the Israelis were bombing their area “with no let-up”.

On the morning of October 22nd, Rushdi al-Sarraj tried to shield his wife and his daughter when the alleged Israeli strike hit their home. According to local news agency WAFA, a number of Rushdi al-Sarraj family members were transferred to Al-Shifa Hospital for treatment, though there was no clear injury count given among sources.

The journalist was reportedly killed by shrapnel and was declared dead at the hospital. Ali Jadallah, a Palestinian photojournalist working for Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency, posted on Instagram the purported body bag of Sarraj, with his name on it, announcing his death.

Rushdi al-Sarraj was a photojournalist who dedicated his life to covering Israeli attacks on Gaza. According to Le Monde, the 31-year-old worked for the press and international NGOs for over ten years, including with Le Monde. The French media outlet wrote that Rushdi was passionate about his land, where he was born, and where his family came from. Rushdi in interviews before his death described his early passion for photography, obtaining digital cameras despite restrictions on goods in Gaza. Rusdhi described how he and his friend, Yasser Murtaja, posted their first shots on Facebook in 2010. “We were filming the sea, gardens, markets. When people saw our videos, they were astonished. They didn’t know that Gaza could also be such a beautiful place,” Rushdi said in an interview in 2018.

His father Yahya al-Sarraj told Al Jazeera that his son was a determined journalist and commented on his courage and bravery. His famous words were: “We will not leave. We will leave Gaza to heaven, and to heaven only.”

His wife Shurouq, who survived the attack alongside their one-year-old daughter Dania, has also highlighted the importance of her husband’s work. “His legacy will live on” she told TRT World,  “I’m honoured that he was my husband. I am very proud of him”.

On November 6th, on the day of their daughter’s first birthday, Shurouq wrote a letter addressed to her deceased husband. “I am devastated,” announced Shurouq, “of the idea that our daughter will remain ‘close’ to Daddy’s heart without remembering his face. She is far too young to be orphaned, and I am far too young to be a widow. You were too young to lose your life simply for being a journalist”.

An accompanying photograph to the letter showed Rushdi al-Sarraj and his daughter Dania smiling at one another in a comfortable home environment.

A post by TwitterX user @Dr.Yahya Al-Sarra shared an image of Rushdi al-Sarraj and five children smiling into the camera – the caption reads “To the eternal gardens of my beloved journalist Rushdie.”

Rushdi’s cousin Rajab al-Siraj wrote a Facebook post grieving his cousins death: “The martyrdom of the good cousin Rushdi Yahya Al-Sarraj. We belong to Allah and to Him we shall return. God is enough, and yes, the agent. Say hello to Yasser”

In the wake of his death, tributes on social media were shared widely across the world that praised him as a friend and professional.

Ain Media, the organisation cofounded by al-Sarraj alongside Yasser Murtaja, released a statement calling him a “brilliant photojournalist and film-maker”. “Rushdi and Yasser (photo-journalist who was also killed by the Israeli security forces in 2018) – are life” read the statement. “They gave voice to the people of Gaza, to their smiles, to the stories locked in fear, to hopes cherished secretly from the oppression of… Israel”.

Similarly, Amnesty International, who worked with Rushdi al-Sarraj earlier on a short documentary that sought to shed light on the human cost of the August 2022 offensive on Gaza (‘They Were Just Kids’), paid tribute to his legacy: “We are devastated by the news that Rushdi Sarraj was killed in an Israeli airstrike”. The purpose of Sarraj’s work as described by Amnesty was to share stories from Gaza, not just stories of war and sorrow, but also simple and inspiring stories that people in Gaza share every day. “Rushdi is survived by his wife, Shurouq, and his one-year-old daughter, Dania, and by countless friends and colleagues who will continue to be inspired by his example and commitment to truth, justice, and hope”.

Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard paid tribute to Rushdi al-Sarraj on her private Twitter/X account “We have lost a friend and colleague […] Rushdi was a talented filmmaker and a journalist – another victim of Israel bombing of Gaza”.

​UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay released a statement where he condemned the killing of Rushdi and emphasised the need to reiterate UN Security Council Resolution 2222/2015, which protects journalists, media professionals, and related personnel as civilians during conflict situations. He has called for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death.

Iran’s international news network – Press TV, Radio France International, Le Monde, TRT World, ABC Radio Melbourne also reported on Rushdi al-Sarraj’s death.

Rush’s name has been reconciled with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of victims released October 26, 2023.

Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed air 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 incident occured in the morning.