During the evening of Tuesday, October 24th 2023, at least six civilians, including two women and two children, were reportedly killed and multiple people were injured in an alleged Israeli airstrike which reportedly hit the al-Adini family home in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Press Agency Safa, along with multiple other sources, initially placed the number of people killed at two, citing the Gaza Ministry of the Interior. However, a report published on November 8th 2023 by British news organisation the Guardian detailed how grandmother Samah al-Adini had lost her daughter, her son-in-law, at least two of her grandchildren, and the two paternal grandparents of those grandchildren in the strike. The minimum number of civilians killed has therefore been recorded as six by Airwars.

Whilst no exact number of injuries was provided by any source, Safa, citing the Gaza Ministry of the Interior, reported that “several” had been injured in the strike, whilst @MAboAhmed95, writing on Twitter/X, placed the number at “many”.

The Guardian’s report, entitled “‘Why didn’t we die together?’: the last survivors of three families speak”, written by Gaza-based journalist Wafa Aludaini, included powerful testimonies from Samah al-Adini and her six-year-old granddaughter Nai’emah, a survivor of the strike. Samah al-Adini, now caring for Nai’emah, said, “I remember my slain daughter. How can her little daughter live without parents?” She also explained that since the strike Nai’emah had not been eating, and as a result she wanted her to have access to therapy. “We will have to wait until the war ends, if we survive, to treat her,” she added.

Aludaini further detailed Nai’emah’s recollection of the events, writing, “As Nai’emah sits in Aladini’s lap, she recalled how her mother was sleepy, but she knew Nai’emah loved fried potatoes so she cooked in spite of her fatigue. Her paternal grandmother was praying and her grandfather was listening to the news on the radio. The last thing Nai’emah remembered is that he called her and her siblings over to give them all something – a treat, maybe. The strike that followed killed Nai’emah’s parents, paternal grandparents and siblings.” Six-year-old Nai’emah told Aludaini, “I still don’t know what my grandfather wanted to give us. I dreamed of him yesterday, that he gave me a doll, but the doll was scary and I ran away.”

The report also noted that the strike occurred “without warning.” Meanwhile, an image published in the article showed a group of people and a bulldozer searching for individuals trapped beneath the rubble of the almost entirely destroyed al-Adini family home in the aftermath of the incident.

Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the strike to Israeli forces.

The incident occured in the evening.