Shortly before midnight, on the evening of April 16, 2025, at least 11 and as many as 16 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed and others were injured, including a pregnant woman, in an alleged Israeli “suicide drone” strike on the Abu al-Rous family’s tents in Mawasi refugee camp, Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip.

Eleven identified members of the displaced Abu al-Rous family, seven of whom were children and three women, were killed in the strike. Among those killed was a disabled child who was unable to escape the fire in his wheelchair. A twelfth member of the family was pregnant and injured.

The strike was first reported by sources just before midnight on April 16. Posting at 11:49 PM, journalist Adly Abu Taha reported the strike via Facebook, writing “10 martyrs in the bombing of a tent belonging to the Abu Al-Rous family in the Al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis.”

The following day, at 2:17 AM in the morning, Shabaka Rasad cited the Palestinian Civil Defense Force – “More than 15 martyrs, most of them children, were recovered after the occupation forces bombed the tents of the displaced in the Mawasi area of ​​Khan Younis.”

A relative of the Abu al-Rous family, Reema Zaki, posted to Facebook, writing: “This evening, April 16, ten members of my family were martyred in the bombing of the Khan Younis tents. We consider them martyrs in the sight of God.”

Websites working to collect the names of those killed in Gaza, Genocide in Gaza and Shireen Monitor, also listed the date of death of the members of the Abu al-Rous family, named in this incident, as April 16.

Information from the authorities indicated that more than 15 deceased individuals were recovered from the Mawasi area in Khan Younis, including members of the Abu al-Rous family. Lists of the deceased from the Abu al-Rous family circulated on social media, with the names first being publicised by Mustafa Zaghoul and Reema Zaki on social media.

In these lists, the deceased were named as: 68-year-old woman, Hajjah Amina Abdel Karim Abu al-Rous (Umm Ramzi), the family matriarch; her 36-year-old daughter-in-law Nahed Zayed Abu al-Rous (Umm Ahmed) who was married to Amina’s son Zuhair; a second daughter-in-law, 27-year-old Tahrir Ibrahim Abu al-Rous (Umm Omar) who was married to Amina’s son Nidal; Amina’s 24-year-old son Mahmoud Ahmed Abdul Karim Abu al-Rous; and Amina’s six grandchildren: 14-year-old girl Nour Zuhair Abu al-Rous, nine-year-old girl Farah Zuhair Abu al-Rous, 13-year-old boy Ahmed Zuhair Abu al-Rous were Nahed’s children, one-year-old boy Ahmed Nidal Abu al-Rous, three-year-old boy Saif Nidal Abu al-Rous, and four-year-old girl Aya Nidal Abu al-Rous, were Nidal’s children.

Al Jazeera – Palestine initially reported that the sole survivor of the family was two-year-old Sham Mahmoud Ahmed Abu al-Rous. Reporting from Nasser Hospital, Sham was seen lying on a small hospital bed, with oxygen running into her mouth, and monitors pressed across her chest and left arm. The doctor overseeing her care said that Sham had suffered serious intestinal injury, as “the shrapnel completely ripped open her intestines.” The doctor went on to say that on account of the severity of the injuries, Sham “will suffer in the future.”

A week later, on April 25, Palestine TV announced that Sham “joined her brother and father who were killed a week ago when the occupation bombed their tent in Mawasi, Khan Younis.” An image of Mahmoud and a tiny baby, accompanied by a flurry of congratulations in the comments, were shared to a Facebook page on January 31, 2024 date. The account appears to be Mahmoud Ahmed Abdul Karim’s personal Facebook page, and as Sham was reported to be about two years old when she was killed, Airwars believes that Mahmoud Ahmed Abdul Karim was Sham’s father. However, Mahmoud’s page doesn’t reference a son, and no other sources referred to Mahmoud having a son. As such, references to Sham’s “brother” potentially meant to refer to one of her cousins, Ahmed Zuhair, Ahmed Nidal, or Saif Nidal. Airwars will update this assessment should additional information become available.

Facebook user ‘ღღ Hope has a tune that has not been played yet ღღ’ also posted on the 25th, writing “Sham Mahmoud Ahmed Mahmoud Al-Rous died of her wounds, which she sustained in the Abu Al-Rous family massacre”. Sham’s father appears to have been Mahmoud Ahmed Abdul Karim. It is unclear who her brother was.

It should be noted that a video posted to Facebook by Hamsawia Ta’sheq Al Khdar on April 17th said that the lone survivor of the attack on the Abu al-Rous family was the child Qusai Abu al-Rous. In Hamsawia’s video, a young boy is seen crying at the funeral. However, it seems that the reference to Qusai as the lone survivor was originally incorrect, as Shams was also a survivor for a time, before ultimately succumbing to her wounds. The details of this account will be updated should additional information become available.

In total, 13 fatalities from the Abu al-Rous family were finally recorded in the attack, seven of whom were children. Amani Abu al-Rous, Sham’s mother (Mahmoud Ahmed Abdul Karim’s wife) was reportedly injured in the attack. Sources, including Arabic Post, said that Amani was pregnant with a four-month-old child at the time of the attack.

Numerous posts by friends and family paid tribute to the deceased.

Aml Ibrahim recounted Nahed reassuring her as Aml had fretted about the birth of her daughter. Aml remembered Nahed speaking words that could “heal the heart of anyone who goes to her”.

Ahmed Zuhair Abu al-Rous was described as a cheerful child, whose “laugh […] keeps everyone laughing”. This was accompanied by pictures of the children: two pictures of Ahmed Zuhair in blue shirts; Nour in a pink shirt with her arms crossed, and in another series of images dressed in a white dress with makeup on and a sparkling veil in her hair; two girls in striped frocks with white ribbons in their hair, standing next to a shy-looking boy in a blue collared shirt.

Many others expressed grief over the passing of Ahmed Zuhair, who had a physical disability and had been confined to his wheelchair. Ahmed’s wheelchair, one of the few recognisable objects remaining in the charred debris following the blaze, was made into a popular symbol of the helplessness and innocence of the victims of this attack, with the refrain “Ahmed Zuhair […] unable to escape or scream […] burned to death in his wheelchair”.

On Facebook, Hend Abo Roos mourned the death of the entire Abu al-Rous family, noting that Nahed was “the memoriser and guardian of the Book of Allah Almighty.”

Mohammed Al Sharief wrote a heartfelt condolence message to Zuhair Abu Al-Rus (Abu Ahmed) who lost his mother, his wife Nahed, three of his children, his brother, his brother’s wife Tahrir, and three of his children.

Videos were circulated on the internet of the bodies being recovered and the funeral proceedings that took place in the hours after the attack. Multiple sources, including Salwa Abulibdeh, Al-Zawaida now, and Faten Nafz wrote that the bodies of the deceased were taken to Nasser Hospital.

In a video shared Alarabiya Palestine, the charred bodies of the children were shown laid out in rows on white sheets, each blackened but distinctly human. These shrouds were then wrapped and carried out of the mortuary by male neighbours, before being laid on the ground before a crowd, in a video by Hend Abo Roos.

With the exception of two-year-old Sham, who died from shrapnel wounds, most sources said that the family burned to death.

Images of the drone associated with the attack were linked in a post by an open-source intelligence account, EekadFacts. Pictures of the same downed drone from alternative angles were also uploaded by other accounts on Facebook, such as Al Hadath Palestine, Belal Musa, and Mahmoud Mohsen.

Images of the drone were also shared by Journalist Mohanned Qashta to Telegram, with Mohanned captioning the post “The suicide plane that the occupation used to bomb the tents of the displaced, causing a massacre against the Abu Al-Rus family in the Mawasi area of ​​Khan Yunis.” The remnants depicted in Mohanned’s images have been identified as a SkyStriker one-way attack UAV, which is manufactured by Elbit Systems of Israel. The remnants were identified by munitions experts at the Open Source Munitions Portal, a joint project between Airwars and Armament Research Services. Their identification can be viewed here (OSMP1354).

Where possible, names have been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) lists, which include national ID numbers. Airwars is matching individuals to the first list where their name appeared. In regard to this incident, names are matched to the ninth ‘Palestinian Ministry of Health List of Fatalities in Gaza’ list, which was released on June 23, 2025.

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