During the evening of Friday, 17th November 2023, at least 72 civilian members of the extended Malka family, including at least 42 children and 12 women, and reportedly up to more than 100 civilians were killed when an alleged Israeli airstrike hit a multi-storey home belonging to the Malka (Malaka) family in the Al-Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, causing it to completely collapse.

The incident was first reported at 1 pm on 18th November by a neighbour of the family, Ahmad Abdul Fattah Basisio, on Facebook. All other reports were made in the days following the incident. Social media users circulated a report that the Ministry of Health in Gaza had announced the death of 41 Palestinian civilians all belonging to the Malaka (Malka) family, killed as a consequence of the attack which hit their home in the al-Zeitoun neighbourhood. The Ministry of Health in Gaza is reported to have released the list of names which then circulated on social media accounts by friends and family. Facebook user Anmar Amayri highlighted that a number of those killed were “women and children”.

Genocide in Pal News reported that the incident occurred on “11/19/2023” when “Israeli warplanes committed a massacre against the Malaka family,“ hitting their family home in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, leading to the death of “more than 40”. The list of 40 names previously published across social media is attached to the report. Facebook user Farah Yasser reported that 61 victims had been killed, all from the Malaka family. A Facebook post by Muna Malaka stated that more than 100 civilians were killed, among them –  women, pregnant women, children, infants, and displaced people.

Subsequent reports made by friends and family members identified additional victims, making the total number of those identified as killed to 72 while four family members were identified as injured.

77-year-old Haji Mohammed Abdel Karim Malka (Abu Nasser) was killed along with his grandson Amir, 58-year-old Abdul Fattah Mustafa Malka (Abu Raed), his brother 62-year-old Jamal Mustafa Malka (Abu Nidal), his son 34-year-old Abdullah Jamal Mustafa Malka and “28 of their grandchildren.” Abdul Fattah’s son 35-year-old Raed Abdul Fattah Mustafa Malka and Jamal and Abdul Fattah’s brother 65-year-old Kamal Mustafa Malka (Abu Mustafa) and sister 43-year-old Khitam Mustafa Malka were also killed.

Abdullah’s five daughters, 13-year-old Maryam Abdullah Malka, 11-year-old Linda Abdullah Malka, eight-year-old Sarah Abdullah Malka, six-year-old Batoul Abdullah Malka, and two-year-old Rima Abdullah Malka were also killed, in addition to Raed’s children – 11-year-old son Abdul Fattah Raed Malka, three-year-old daughter Suwar Raed Malka and five-year-old son Moataz Raed Malka. In a Facebook post, user Nurse Home described Raed Abdel Fattah Malik as a “wise man”. In a photo shared alongside the post, he was is depicted as a young man with dark hair, dark eyebrows, and stubble taking a selfie outdoors.

Haji Mohammed Malta can be seen in a photo posted on Facebook by family member Mujahed Murtaja as an elderly man with grey facial hair, wearing a white headscarf with a gold rim held over his head by a black agal. Family member Malaka Ahmad posted on Facebook mourning the death of his family, and the post read “Oh, heartache most of our family is gone”.

51-year-old Haji Sami Saeed Malka was killed alongside his wife, Hajar Hamdi Malka, their three sons, 26-year-old Saeed Sami Saeed Malka,  25-year-old Mohammed Sami Saeed Malka, and 10-year-old Abdullah Sami Saeed Malka and his six daughters –  17-year-old Batoul Sami Saeed Malka, Hala Sami Saeed Malka, 10-year-old Zeina Sami Saeed Malka, Dima Sami Saeed Malka (Mortajy), 30-year-old Badour Sami Saeed Malka (al-Dahdouh), and 28-year-old Heba Sami Saeed Malka (al-Shayyah). 

In a Facebook post on March 20, 2024, Hala Malka mourned the death of her brother Sami Saeed Malka, noting the dates of his birth and death – 21.03.1972 and 16.11.2023. She shared a photo which depicted him as an older man with greying hair and dark eyebrows and a dark mustache, wearing a suit and tie and smiling in front of a deep blue backdrop. She wrote a touching tribute to him: “Your birthday in heaven is the best  my love, my brother, my support, may Allah have mercy on you and grant you the highest paradise.”

In addition, Badour’s four children, eight-year-old Baraa Mahmoud Mohammed Salman al-Dahdouh, six-year-old Rehab Mahmoud Mohammed Salman al-Dahdouh, four-year-old Tala Mahmoud Mohammed Salman al-Dahdouh and two-year-old Maryam Mahmoud Mohammed Salman al-Dahdouh were also among those killed.

In a post on Facebook, Mohammad al-Shayyah mourned the death of his brother Youssef Hassan al-Shayyah, husband of Heba Sami Saeed, who was killed along with their two children, a one-year-old infant son Hassan Youssef al-Shayyah and six-year-old daughter Lamyaa Youssef al-Shayyah. In the photo shared alongside the post, Youssef was depicted as a middle-aged man with greenish-brown eyes, dark eyebrows, short-cut dark hair, and a clean-shaved face. In another photo Youssef was depicted carrying his daughter Lamyaa in his arms, and she had long brown hair and was wearing a green jumper with a Palestinian flag and a flower headdress over her head.

According to the post by Mohammad al-Shayyah, Lamyaa had died of her wounds after she suffered 60% burns on her body. He also added: “Hours before her martyrdom, she spoke to us and said that she would go to her father, mother and brother Hassan. I don’t know how she knew that her family had been martyred before her.”

A third daughter of Youssef and Heba, Maryam Youssef al-Shayyah, was reportedly the only family member to have survived the incident. Family member Jihad Abu Yazan wrote a Facebook post asking for prayers for his niece’s granddaughter Maryam who he reported “was the only one who survived” the attack and “is now in one of the hospitals in Egypt”. Photos shared alongside the post depicted a toddler with short brown hair, wearing an orange tracksuit and smiling toward the camera. In another image she was depicted in a close-up up smiling gently toward the camera, and she had scars on her nose and forehead and was wearing what appears to be a blue hospital robe. In another image, shared by family member Mohammad al-Shayyah on facebook she was  depicted lying on a hospital bed in a bloodied white fabric, her face is badly burnt and the captions reads that she lost 70 members of her family “including her grandfather, grandmother and maternal uncles” and that “she was burned by [Israel’s] bombs”.

Additional sources mentioned that a two-year-old girl named Suwar Mahmoud Ahmed Mortaja, a 10-year-old boy named Youssef Amir Malka, and a 16-year-old boy named Ahmed Ghassan Malk (son of Ghassan) were among the killed.

48-year-old Mahfouz Hamdi Malka was killed alongside his wife 43-year-old Kifah Jamal Malka and their children – 16-year-old Muhannad Mahfouz Malka and five-year-old Safa Mahfouz Malka.

Three children, a daughter and two sons, of Abu Malik  – 13-year-old Jana Muhammad Malka, 11-year-old Malik Muhammad Malka, and Mustafa Muhammad Malka – were also killed in the incident.

According to Ahmad Abdul and Mohammad Tayseer Ismail, the wife and children of Ahmed were killed, likely 35-year-old Alaa Amer Malka (Daloul) and their children – daughters 10-year-old Maryam Ahmed Malka and Nada Ahmed Malka and sons seven-year-old Hamdi Ahmed Malka and Hamoud Ahmed Malka.

A woman named 39-year-old Sabreen Hamdi Malka was killed along with her daughter, Iman Ahmed Malka, and her father Hamdi Abd al-Karim Malka (Abu Adnan). Sabreen was mentioned in a Facebook post by Malaka Ahmad who wrote that Sabreen was a daughter of her uncle Abu Adnan.

She also mentioned the death of three-year-old Sham Zakaria Malka and the son of Rabie (Ibn Rabie) who was identified as nine-year-old Hamdi Rabie Malka.

Malaka Ahmad also wrote that her father and uncle Abu Adnan (later reported as killed) as well as her little sister, brother-in-law Abdo and nephew Samaher were injured.

Four children of Majed Malka, a cousin of Tariq Salah, were also mentioned in Tariq’s Facebook post among the victims – daughters 17-year-old Sherine Majed Malka and eight-year-old Mirna Majed Malka and sons 16-year-old Wael Majed Malka and 14-year-old Samir Majed Malka.

Tariq Salaq also listed two sons of his cousin Nidal Malka – 17-year-old Jamal Nidal Malka and 16-year-old Mohammed Nidal Malka – among the victims. He also mentioned the children of Hazem Jamal Malka as both killed – a four-year-old daughter Safa Hazem Malka and a five-year-old son Hamza Hazem Malka. Tariq Salaq also noted 15-year-old Khaled Mustafa Jamal Malka among those killed, emphasizing that he was a “son of the martyr.”

In the list provided by Tariq, there were also names of the additional seven female “martyrs” – 30-year-old Warda Salah Malka, 55-year-old Khatam Ahmed Rahim (Malka), Bushra Fayez Daloul (Malka), 29-year-old Ghada Ahmed Abu Seria (Malka), 25-year-old Shaimaa Jabr Abu Seria (Malka), 12-year-old Nada Jamal Malaka, and 13-year-old Bisan Jamal Malaka.

The airstrikes were reported to have occurred in the area more than once, causing significant infrastructure damage. Posting on Facebook, family member Muna Malaka reported that “It was not enough that they killed them, they returned and bombed the area again and wiped out the entire residential block”.  She wrote, “The dear ones are gone with their sons, daughters and grandchildren[…] the rest are women, pregnant women, children and infants”. Mourning the dead she lamented that her “heart is burning”.

A video posted on X by the Syrian journalist @k7ybnd99 depicted a large residential area depleted to rubble. A house burns in flames, a car is crushed by fallen debris, and multistory buildings are blackened, destroyed, or shattered completely to the ground. Crowds of people were depicted standing around the site in shock and panic, others rushed around searching for anyone still trapped beneath the rubble.

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 were matched to the fifth and six Palestinian Ministry of Health Lists of Fatalities in Gaza which were released on 2024-07-24 and 2024-9-16 respectively. Additional ages of victims have been found by cross-checking names against lists of fatalities shared online by Genocide in Gaza, which has a list of “martyrs” of Israeli forces.

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