At least 39 identified members of the al-Ghoul family, coming from at least three generations and including at least 12 women and 13 children, and up to more than 100 civilians were reportedly killed and dozens were wounded in an alleged Israeli airstrike on their multi-story family home in the al-Shati Refugee Camp in northern Gaza late on the night of Friday, 27th October 2023. According to Marwan al-Ghoul, the building was “levelled to the ground on the heads of its residents” when “warplanes” bombed the area.

Whilst the initial number of civilians reported to have been killed in the strike was placed at 28 by Khaled Abdulsalam, posting on Facebook, numerous sources, including members of the al-Ghoul family such as Helmy al-Ghoul, later identified 37 members of the family who had died. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Refugees Portal news website placed the death toll even higher, reporting that 44 bodies had been recovered from the rubble following the bombing of the al-Shati camp. Abd Abu Farah in his Facebook post wrote that more than 50 family members of the Al-Ghoul family were killed: “Al-Shati Camp massacre Our condolences to our neighbors, the honorable Al-Ghoul family More than 50 martyrs.” A Facebook post by Nour Ibrahim alleged that more than 100 martyrs were killed in the bombing of a residential tower west of Gaza City in the Al-Shati neighborhood that was housing displaced people, but it was not clear from a source whether he was referring to the Al-Ghoul family home.

Those 39 victims identified by Airwars researchers to have been killed in the strike came from at least three generations of the al-Ghoul family.

63-year-old Majed Muhammad Mahmoud al-Ghoul was killed alongside 66-year-old Najah Khaled Salem al-Ghoul (reportedly his wife), his two sons – 35-year-old Amjad Majed Muhammad al-Ghoul and 28-year-old Muhammad Majid Muhammad al-Ghoul, his three daughters – 42-year-old Maysaa Majed Muhammad Al-Ghoul, 32-year-old Hana Majed Muhammad al-Ghoul and 29-year-old Israa Majed Muhammad al-Ghoul, and at at least four grandchildren.

In particular, the strike killed three small children of Amjad Majed (grandchildren of Majed) – nine-year-old daughter Rahaf Amjad Majid al-Ghoul, four-year-old daughter Maryam Amjad Majid al-Ghoul, and two-year-old son Majid Amjad Majid al-Ghoul. The one-year-old daughter of Muhammad Majed, Karima Muhammad Majid al-Ghoul, was also among the victims.

46-year-old Muhammad Ibrahim Hassan al-Ghoul was killed in the strike alongside his 20-year-old son Sami Muhammad Ibrahim al-Ghoul, and his three daughters – 22-year-old Sally Muhammad Ibrahim al-Ghoul, 17-year-old Sama Muhammad Ibrahim al-Ghoul and 12-year-old Sandy Muhammad Ibrahim al-Ghoul.

38-year-old Sami Nafez Muhammad al-Ghoul was killed along with his children – 14-year-old son Nafez Sami Nafez al-Ghoul, and 15-year-old daughter Malik Sami Nafez al-Ghoul.

Among the victims of the deadly airstrike were also three siblings – 40-year-old Fatima Zaki Mustafa al-Ghoul, her 62-year-old sister Heshma Faryal Zaki Mustafa al-Ghoul, and 52-year-old brother Shawqi Zaki Mustafa al-Ghoul.

Shawqi Zaki Mustafa al-Ghoul, in turn, was killed along with his four children – 20-year-old son Abdullah Shawqi Zaki al-Ghoul, 26-year-old daughter Israa Shawqi Zaki Al-Ghoul, 30-year-old daughter Nagla Shawqi Zaki al-Ghoul, and 26-year-old son Muhammad Shawqi Al-Ghoul and his grandchildren – four-year-old son of Nagla, Muhammad Omar Nafez al-Ghoul and eight-year-old daughter of Nagla, Fatima Omar Nafez al-Ghoul.

Another pair of siblings – 45-year-old man Fadi Mahmoud Abdel Qader Al-Ghoul and his 47-year-old sister Jamal Mahmoud Abdel Qader Al-Ghoul – were also killed.

34-year-old Walaa Majid Muhammad Arif al-Ghoul was killed alongside her two daughters – nine-year-old Amal Falasteen Ihab Ahmed Arif and one-year-old Siwar (Suwar) Ehab Ahmed Arif. 

Walaa Majed Mohammed Arif’s husband, Ehab Arif (Abu Amal Palestine), was critically injured as he “sustained a severe injury and several fractures” but stabilized after surgery on October 29, according to Rana Roshdi’s Facebook post. In addition to losing his wife Walaa in the bombing, Ihab also lost his mother, 55-year-old Amal Madhat Abdel Gawad Al-Ghoul. Amal was killed alongside her 34-year-old son Ayham Ahmed Haroun Arif, a brother of Ehab, and her 11-year-old granddaughter, daughter of Ayham Amal Ayham Ahmed Arif.

Finally, the list of victims also contained the names of 29-year-old man Nour Aed Zaki al-Ghoul, 31-year-old man Omar Nafez Al-Ghoul, and Wafa Dhaif Allah (Ghoul) (age and gender unknown).

Images of the names of victims hand-written on paper were shared by multiple local sources.

Further to those who were killed in the incident, six names of those who were injured (apart from Ehab Arif) have also been identified by Airwars researchers based on the handwritten note shared by Hamada El Ghoul on Facebook. Initially, the list of the injured contained 11 names, but five of them were later listed among the killed, apparently after succumbing to their injuries. The injured family members were Ahmed Saqr Al-Ghoul, Akel Ayham Areef, Ahmed Ayham Areef, Farah Sami Al-Ghoul, Sari Majed Al-Ghoul, and Muhammad Sami Al-Ghoul. The source which named the injured asked for “God to have mercy on them and to heal all the injured.”

Shehab News Agency reported on Twitter/X that “dozens” of those killed and wounded in the strike were transported to the al-Shifa hospital, whilst Nader al-Ghoul, writing on Facebook, indicated that 18 people were left trapped beneath the rubble of the building in the aftermath of the strike. None of the sources provided a specific injury toll.

Local sources reported that the strike occurred amidst an extremely intense bombardment of the al-Shati camp. Al-Arabiya News reported that their correspondent described how al-Shati had been “witnessing the heaviest bombing since the beginning of the war, stressing that it is an unprecedented bombing at sea, land and air.”

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Wafa News Agency published a report with a number of testimonies from people in the camp, including from the scene of the strike on the al-Ghoul family tower block. 54-year-old local resident Alaa Mahdi told reporters that Israeli strikes on al-Shati were like “an earthquake, even more violent than an earthquake. If it had been an earthquake, it would have been less than what was caused by the naval, artillery, and aviation bombardment.” He also noted that the internet and telecommunications were cut off prior to the beginning of the strikes which caused “comprehensive destruction”.

The Wafa report also described the scene of the destroyed al-Ghoul residential tower, noting that surrounding homes were also destroyed by the airstrike. Dozens of people were seen searching the rubble for survivors and victims, with one young man Abdul Majeed Abu Hasira lying on his stomach calling down into the ruins: “Is there anybody under… we are here to save you.”

Zakaria Baker posted a number of photos on Facebook depicting the completely destroyed tower and heavily damaged surrounding buildings, with numerous people appearing to be searching the rubble. He also paid tribute to those killed, offering “our full solidarity and sympathy to our neighbours, friends, and loved ones, the al-Ghoul family”.

Another image posted by Mohamed al-Ghoul on the al-Ghoul family’s Facebook group showed at least twelve bodies, wrapped in white sheets, laid on the ground in the street.

Nader al-Ghoul also paid tribute on Facebook to those killed and offered his condolences to those who had also lost family members, noting that this was the second time a large number of al-Ghoul family members had been killed in strikes. He wrote, “My condolences to the loved ones, my uncle Abu al-Walid’s house, my uncle Abu Amal’s house, and especially Abu Nizar Mohieddin, whose wife lost her family” in the first incident. He added that he was listing the names of those killed “because we are not numbers.”

Multiple sources noted that this was the “second massacre” suffered by the family, suggesting that they had already been subject to a previous incident.

Where possible, names have been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) lists, which include national ID numbers. Since October 26, 2023, the MoH has released six lists, along with an additional list of medical professionals, which was released on September 17, 2024. Airwars matches individuals to the first list where their names appeared. In regard to this incident, names are matched to the second “Palestinian Ministry of Health List of Fatalities in Gaza” list, which was released on January 7th, 2024.

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

Whilst the precise local time of the strike is unclear, an Al-Ghad news report referencing the incident appears to have been posted on 27th October, whilst the first report with an exact timestamp was posted by the Shehab News Agency at 01:04 local time on the morning of 28th October. This suggests that the strike occurred late on the night of Friday 27th October.