Shortly before 11:40 PM on Sunday October 22nd 2023, an alleged Israeli airstrike hit the Dahleez family home in the Hashashin area, west of Rafah in the Gaza strip, killing up to 15 members of the Dahleez family. Airwars was able to identify 13 family members by name, including at least three women and four children. Dozens of other civilians were reported injured. Journalist Adel Zourub posted an image of the completely destroyed family home that used to belong to Adel Abdulaziz Hamad Dahleez.

At 11:40 in the evening of Sunday Shehab Agency tweeted with a remark “urgent” that the body of a civilian and a number of other wounded people were delivered to Kuwait Hospital in Rafah after the strike on Dahleez family home. Since this first report, the number of civilians reported killed and injured on social media increased significantly. A Facebook user M. Hisham Al-Shaarawy reported about “11 martyrs and dozens of injuries.” Another Facebook user, Faris Al-Amour Abu Muhammad, mourned the death of his “dear friend Abdulaziz Dehliz and his entire family of 14 individuals.” Airwars has therefore estimated the upper toll as 15 fatalities. According to the post by Adel Ahmed, three members of the family survived the attack.

Airwars has been able to identify 13 victims by name from eulogies posted by their families, neighbours, and loved ones, including posts by Abu Abdullah, Sahar Dahleez and Diwan Al Zaroub.

64-year old owner of the house Hajj Adel Abdulaziz Hamad Dahleez was killed alongside his 57-year old wife Hiyam Fayed Mohsen Dahleez and her sister, 65-year old Sawsan Fayed Mohsen Dahleez (Aqla).  Four brothers – a 31-year old Ziad Adel A Dahleez, a 33-year old Abdulaziz Adel Dahleez, a 22-year old Bassem Adel Dehliz, and 30-year-old Hamdi Adel Dahleez were also killed.

Ziad’s 4-year old son Adel Ziad Adel Dahleez was also killed. Ziad was reportedly hugging his son when they died. There are also eulogies for Ziad’s wife, but Airwars has not been able to identify her by name. An image of the dead bodies of Ziad and his son Adel where Ziad is seen hugging his son were shared by Algeria News and Quranarab Facebook account.

Among the victims of the deadly attack were also two of Abdulaziz’s small sons –  a 4-year old Adel Abdulaziz Dahleez and a 6-year old Mohamed Abdulaziz Dahleez. A friend of the late Abdulaziz named Faris Al-Amour Abu Muhammad shared some images where Abdulaziz, a young bearded man in a yellow jacket, is seen embracing his two small smiling sons. In other images he appears at the seaside and at a family festival.

Initially one of the relatives called “Lana’s Mother” on Facebook reported that Hamdi Dahleez and his wife were injured, and their names were not on the list of the killed relatives. However, later it was reported by Hamdi’s relative that Hamdi was in fact killed, though there were no further reports about his wife.

Kamal Abu Aaed shared the list of 11 names and added some images of the victims, among them an elderly man, apparently Adel Abdulaziz Hamad Dahleez, and three young men who are apparently his deceased sons. The Zourab family, expressing the condolences to the surviving family members, also shared the same image of Adel.

A 14-year old girl named Afnan Aladdin Ahmed Abu Younis was also among those killed and her father posted a photo of her phone background: a lantern with a Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad written.

Lastly, Aseel Attia Dahleez was also killed as per testimonies of family members and friends.

Muhammad Abu Hamdi wrote that “My cousin, Adel Dahleez, his family, and his grandchildren, are martyrs of Gaza”, sharing a graphic image of the dead bodies covered with cloth lying on the floor.

The Shehab News Agency and SND News Agency both state that victims were taken to the Al-Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah. Photos shared by SND appear to show victims at the hospital, including a small girl sitting on a hospital bed. She appears coated in dust and with a look of shock on her face. Other images show a man being treated for a head injury, and another a covered body being taken to the hospital on a stretcher.

None of the sources has directly attributed the strike to Israeli military. Airwars has matched the names of some civilians killed with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of fatalities in Gaza released on October 26th, 2023, which explicitly mentions that names on the list are “victims of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip”. Therefore, the strike status has been graded as a single source claim. Incidents will be updated to reflect alternative attribution should that come to light at a later stage.

The incident occured at approximately 11:40 pm local time.