Shortly before 8:18 PM on Tuesday, October 24th 2023, at least seven identified members of the Al-Hams family, including two women, one of whom was pregnant, and three children, were reportedly killed and at least five civilians, including three children and two women, were injured when an alleged Israeli airstrike hit the family’s home in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) camp in the Saudi neighbourhood to the west of Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip.

Safa News was among the first sources to report about the incident, shortly after 8.15pm, noting that three people had been killed and another five injured. @PalinfoAr soon reported that the death toll was at six, while a number of others wounded were arriving at the Emirati Hospital. The account also shared images of a severely destroyed residential building.  Although two initial sources quoted between three and six people dead, the number later rose to seven and was corroborated by other sources.

The seven civilian members of the Al-Hams family who died in the attack were identified based on the social media testimonies by family and friends.

35-year-old engineer Muhammad Khamis Saleh Al-Hams was killed alongside his 31-year-old pregnant wife Sahar (Suahair) Wael Rashad Al-Hams (Al-Ghandour), a teacher at UNRWA schools, and their two young sons, six-year-old Wael Muhammad Khamis Al-Hams who attended the first grade of primary school and eight-year-old Khamis Muhammad Khamis Al-Hams who attended the third grade.

According to the Facebook tribute to the late Sahar and her family members by Sahar’s aunt Mervat Al-Zaqzouq, Sahar was pregnant at the time of her death, and only a few days were left before she was supposed to give birth to a baby girl. Mervat added: “Sahar is a teacher working in UNRWA schools. She is a distinguished young woman with all the details and milestones of her life. All her hope was in the world, raising her children and living in safety.”

She also wrote that Sahar’s husband Muhammad was a good-natured young man. A relative Dina Ali wrote on Facebook that Muhammad was a memorizer of the Quran.

Muhammad’s elder brother, 43-year-old engineer Saleh Khamis Al-Hams, his 42-year-old wife Abeer Nafez Salamah Al-Hams, and their nine-year-old son Muhammad Saleh Khamis Al-Hams also reportedly died in the alleged airstrike.

Dina Ali posted to Facebook, mourning the death of Saleh Khamis Al-Hams, whom they referred to as their brother and characterized him as “the most ethical, religious, and humble person I know.” Dina also wrote that Abeer Nafez Al-Hams, the wife of Saleh, had spoken only days earlier about how she did not know how to continue to live following the death of her twin Heba who had been killed before. Mervat Al-Zaqzouq wrote that Saleh was a “handsome young man”, and his wife Abeer was “the beloved of all of us.”

Rafah Governate also reported on the attack, posting photos of the crew from the Central Emergency Committee searching the collapsed rubble of the home using heavy machinery to look for any missing people or possible survivors. Photos posted by various sources showed that the house was totally destroyed in the attack.

Multiple sources also reported numerous injuries as a result of the alleged Israeli attack. Photos posted by the Facebook account Palestine Now showed three children and two women who were allegedly injured in the bombing of the Al-Hams family home. Twitter/X user @mohammed_jbour posted that two injured people had been taken to the Emirati Hospital in the aftermath of the attack.

A video posted to Facebook by Al Jazeera Palestine showed a number of the injured survivors of the attack with some recounting the attack from their hospital beds. The video starts with a young girl explaining what happened before a crying woman continues to talk about the attack. The video then cuts to the same woman arriving at the hospital alongside a man on a gurney, a toddler being examined, another young boy arriving at the hospital on a gurney, and finally a very young boy covered in dust.

All the names of the victims have been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of fatalities in Gaza released on October 26th, 2023.

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

The incident occured at approximately 8:18 pm local time.