Shortly before midday on December 2, 2023, an alleged Israeli airstrike hit the Al-Sawafiri family home located on Al-Burham Street near Al-Shafi’i Mosque in the Zaytoun neighbourhood of Gaza City. The building housed multiple family units and was destroyed. Up to 28 people were killed, most of them members of the extended Al-Sawafiri family, spanning multiple generations, including 15 children, five women, and elderly family members. A number of civilians were also injured.

Early reporting by the media outlets Safa.ps and Shehab Agency confirmed 20 fatalities, noting others remained trapped under rubble. A post from X user @alking14399969, reporting the incident at 12:47 p.m. with the hashtag “urgent,” described the incident as an Israeli bombing of the Al-Sawafiri home near Al-Shafi’i Mosque, noting deaths and injuries. A relative, Moen Al-Sawafiri, wrote that the destroyed residential building housed over 50 people, with many still unaccounted for.

Subsequent social media posts by relatives, including Hazem, Moamer, and Alaa aldeen al-Sawafiri, provided detailed casualty lists. These identified at least 28 civilians killed, naming grandmothers, parents, children and siblings.

An elderly woman, Haja Umm Ihab al-Sawafiri, was killed alongside her son, 47-year-old Muhammad Falah al-Sawafiri and Muhammad’s wife, Samah Salah al-Sawafiri, who was aged 41 or 42. Three of Muhammad and Samah’s children were also killed – their 13-year-old daughter Raghad Muhammad Falah al-Sawafiri and seven-year-old Zeina Muhammad Falah al-Sawafiri, as well as their 16-year-old son Amir Muhammad Falah al-Sawafiri. Umm Ihab’s two other grandchildren were also reportedly killed: her 11-year-old grandson, Hamza Ahmed Salah al-Sawafiri and infant granddaughter, Fatima Ahmed Salah al-Sawafiri, killed before she was a year old.

The website Genocide in Gaza, which has a list of the “victims of the Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip,” provided different ages for Muhammad and Zeina’s daughters, claiming that Raghad was 16, and Zeina was 10. The profile of Raghad on Genocide in Gaza shows an image of a young girl, wearing a green long-sleeved shirt and a white hijab, smiling at a camera. Zeina’s profile showed a young girl with long curly hair, dressed in a white dress.

The 19-year-old nephew of Muhammad, Moeen Samer Falah al-Sawafiri, was also reported killed. His image on the website Genocide in Gaza shows a young man in a cap, wearing glasses and having a trimmed beard. Facebook user Amani al-Ashqar posted condolences for Moeen, who was born and raised in Saudi Arabia and had come to Gaza to begin his first year of university studies.

Muhammad’s sister, 29-year-old Raneen Falah al-Sawafiri, also lost her life in the attack, along with the lives of her four children: 11-year-old daughter, Salma Jihad Muhammad al-Sawafiri, an infant daughter, Maryam Jihad Muhammad al-Sawafiri, 10-year-old son, Muhammad Jihad Muhammad al-Sawafiri, and seven-year-old son, Zein Jihad Muhammad al-Sawafiri.

Among the victims was also Muhammad’s 45-year-old sister-in-law, Linda Mamdouh Saadi al-Sawafiri, and her 17-year-old daughter, Karawan Ezzat Falah al-Sawafiri.

Another sister-in-law of Muhammad, 39-year-old Ghada Fawzi al-Sawafiri, was killed along with her two sons, 20-year-old Falah Ihab Falah al-Sawafiri, and nine-year-old Siraj Ihab Falah al-Sawafiri.

A young man, Tamer Alaa Falah al-Sawafiri, aged 26 according to the MoH list or 28, according to Genocide in Gaza, was killed along with his wife, Soha Fouad al-Sawafiri, and their two sons: three-year-old Alaa Tamer Alaa al-Sawafiri and one-year-old Muhammad Tamer Alaa al-Sawafiri. Four of Tamer’s siblings were also among the victims of the incident: 25-year-old sister Areej Alaa Falah al-Sawafiri and 10-year-old sister Mayar Alaa Falah al-Sawafiri, 19-year-old brother Bilal Alaa Falah al-Sawafiri and nine-year-old brother Youssef Alaa Falah al-Sawafiri.

An image of Tamer posted on the website Genocide in Gaza showed him as a young man with a broad smile, dressed in a pink T-shirt. Bilal’s image on the same resources showed a young smiling man with short hair, dressed in a white shirt.

50-year-old Alia Fawzi Saeed al-Sawafiri may also have been among the victims of the deadly attack. Although Alia Fawzi Saeed al-Sawafiri was not mentioned among the victims by the local sources, entries in both Genocide in Gaza and Shireen Monitor mentioned her among the casualties of this particular strike.

Where possible, the names of the victims have been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) lists, which include national ID numbers. Since October 26, 2023, the MoH has released a number of 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, names have been matched to the fifth, seventh and eighth “Palestinian Ministry of Health List of Fatalities in Gaza”, which were released on July 24, 2024, October 23, 2024 and March 24, 2025, respectively.

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