On November 6, 2023, five members of the Al-Safadi family, including two women and two children, were killed and at least one woman was injured by an alleged Israeli attack on Al-Andalus Tower, Meena, opposite the Fish Market north of Gaza City in the Gaza strip.

In a post to Facebook, the Meena Mosque issued an urgent appeal in the early afternoon of November 6 stating that members of the Al-Safadi family were stuck under the rubble of the Al-Andalus Tower following an attack. Those trapped were identified as 37-year-old Sheikh Ahmed Fawsi al-Safadi, his wife Amal al-Safadi and their two children: Baraa Ahmed al-Safadi and Talin Ahmed al-Safadi. The author of the post, seemingly a sibling of Ahmed, also identified their mother, Hajja Amal Yousef Mohammed Arab al-Safadi as a casualty, and specified that their sister (name not provided) had been “pulled out from under the rubble.” The post offered a reward for finding the family, and listed several contact numbers: “Whoever can reach them or send the Civil Defense will gain a reward for us and God will write the reward for him.”

At the time of posting, the Meena Mosque noted that local news had reported that those under the rubble of the Al-Andalus Tower had been killed. The author, who appeared to be living abroad with a contact number in Romania, was clearly distraught: “My family is under the rubble and I don’t know how to reach them. The news says that they were martyred.”

Nour Alzammar, the nephew of Hajjah al-Safadi, confirmed the death of his aunt along with Ahmed, his wife and children after they were under the rubble for 40 hours. This was followed by an outpouring of commiserations online. Another nephew of Hajjah al-Safadi, Sahr Ali Elsafadj, posted a prayer to Facebook, beseeching God to “have mercy on them all and grant them a spacious place with the martyrs and the righteous.”

Ahmed Fawsi al-Safadi was described in multiple social media posts as a leader within the community. In a post to Facebook, Yousef Al-Haddad commiserated the death of “our sheikh, our beloved and our teacher,” emphasising that Ahmed would “remain in our hearts” as someone who was “a man of good character, chivalrous, pure and brave.” Multiple sources attached photographs of Ahmed in a thawb and kufi.

The family was remembered for their kindness, with Nedal Alsafdi lamenting “kind-hearted” Ahmed, and Hadeel Majed mourning his “dear, kind” aunt Amal.

Though no source identified a belligerent, Ahmed’s name has been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) List of Fatalities in Gaza, which attributes deaths to the Israeli military. As such, this has been graded as a “single-source claim” in regards to the belligerent. 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 is matching individuals to the first list where their name appeared. In regard to this incident, Ahmed was matched to the third ‘Palestinian Ministry of Health List of Fatalities in Gaza’ list, which was released on April 1st, 2024.