On October 29th 2023, up to nine civilians were killed, including at least four children, by an alleged Israeli airstrike which took place on the Al-Naffar family home in the Al Thalathini/Sabra Neighbourhood in Rafah, the Gaza strip.

Ayman Kuhail posted that they had lost their cousin Hajj Noha Omar Kahil Al-Naffar (Umm Hisham, 62) and her husband Hajj Saeed Al-Naffar (Abu Hisham), as well as their son Muhammad Saeed Al-Naffar (38) and his two sons Saeed Muhammad Al-Naffar (12) and Saif Muhammad Al-Naffar (9).

Alaa A Hermaid wrote a similar post, corroborating on the names and added that the second son of Umm Hisham and Abu Hisham, Iyad Al Nafar (34), was also killed along with two of his children in the reported strike, Noha Iyad Al-Nafar (4) and Amir Iyad Al-Nafar (2).

Adjoining the posts by Ayman Kuhail and Alaa A Hermaid are pictures of a man with what appears to be his sons, and the two young sons are holding up paper to the camera which may have been school work. Another picture is of an older couple smiling at the camera, it is likely that this is Saeed and Noha. Another picture is of a young child in a Christmas hat looking excited about a toy doll, she is also pictured again being held up by a young man. Finally a younger toddler is seen holding a balloon in a yellow spider man jumper.

Hisham Naffar, a surviving son of Saeed and Noha, wrote a condolence message on Facebook to his mother, father, siblings, and nieces and nephews, adding that Muhammad Al-Nafar was an engineer.

Initial reports stated that a woman and two girls were killed in the alleged airstrikes by Safa News, and the report added that they were missing amongst rubble of the house. Multiple sources corroborated on this statement, however Hajj Noha Omar Kahil and her granddaughter Noha were the only women named as killed in the other sources. It is possible that there is a child unaccounted for, or one of the young boys was mistaken for a girl.

Rola Daloul posted that Noha Kahil spent hours under the rubble and there was no ambulance to take her to hospital, adding that the shrouding and burial was rushed and “No one was able to bid them farewell and say their final greetings”.

A Facebook post from the Palestinian Civil Defense included images of the Civil Defense crews retrieving three of the dead from under the rubble. It is unclear if this is the one woman and two girls referred to in initial posts. In the image a digger is seen moving rubble of what is assumed to be where the house stood. It appears a whole building has collapsed, with the walls of a neighbouring building blown through.

Palestine Today Channel reported that the building stood opposite the electricity company in central Gaza City.

Where possible, names have been reconciled with published Palestinian Ministry of Health lists. With thanks to journalist Alexandre Horn from CheckNews for identifying relevant sources, and Data Tech for Palestine for centralising the datasets.

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