During the evening of Tuesday, the 24th of October 2023, at least nine civilians, including three women and three children, were killed and others injured during an alleged Israeli bombardment on the Musa family home in the Saudi neighbourhood of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. It was reported that all of those in the house at the time of the alleged attack were killed by the strike.
Among those reported killed were 54-year-old woman Fitna Muhammad Abdel Qader Musa and her 35-year-old son, Islam Khader Khaled Musa. Islam’s son, Mahmoud Islam Khader Musa, a child, was killed with his father and grandmother, though his body was recovered days after the strike.
69-year-old Muhammad Mutawa al-Khalidi was also reported killed, along with his 58-year-old wife, Aida Khalil Ahmed al-Khalidi, and their 35-year-old son, Alaa Muhammad al-Khalidi. Alaa’s wife, 25-year-old Maryam Mahmoud al-Khalidi, was also killed, as was their child, three-year-old Elia Alaa al-Khalidi. A cousin, two-year-old Hala Abdul Rahman al-Khalidi, was also reportedly killed.
Nasser Rahma reported that a deceased unidentified child arrived at the Emirati Hospital after the strike on the Musa family home. It is unclear if this child was accounted for in other reports.
Munther Al Sharafi, a neighbour of the deceased, added that the Al-Khalidi family had been displaced from outside Rafah. Cousin Muntaser Al-Khalidi specified that they had been displaced from the Gaza governorate.
Memorials to the deceased were shared on social media. Facebook user “The name is Hassan Hamdouna” mourned the “honorable” Al-Khalidi family after receiving the “very sad and shocking news” of their deaths. One friend, Facebook user “Moses replied” expressed grief over the loss of the Musa family – “The heart can no longer bear the separation of loved ones” and shared a photograph of Fitna Musa wearing a black polo and his grandson, Mahmoud, dressed in a thawb.
Muntaser Al-Khalidi remembered the Al-Khalidis, posting pictures of five members of the family. The first one shows Muhammad Mutawa in a grey shirt.
The second picture shows Alaa, sporting a grey Adidas t-shirt. In another photo he is shown with Elia sitting on his lap. Another photograph shared shows two-year-old Hala, smiling at the camera in a striped shirt. Finally, another photo of Elia was shared, showing her wearing a chequered pink and purple dress with a matching bag.
Photographs shared post-strike documented injuries wrought by the bombardment. Facebook user Abu Amer in Ma’bad shared a photograph of a man receiving medical treatment. Covered in dust, he has multiple wounds on his face and arm. A photograph shared by Facebook user “One of the Khalidi” showed eight body bags, including small ones, indicating children.
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 seven lists, along with an additional list of medical professionals, which was released on September 17, 2024. Airwars is matching individuals to the first list where their name appeared. In regard to this incident, several names were matched to the first ‘Palestinian Ministry of Health List of Fatalities in Gaza’ list, which was released on October 26, 2023. Others were added in later months, appearing in the fourth list, released April 30th, 2024, and the fifth list, released June 30, 2024.
Where sources identified a belligerent, all pointed to the Israeli military.