During the evening of Tuesday, 16 September, 2025, an alleged Israeli airstrike hit a vehicle in the al-Katiba area, near the Ansar intersection and the Bar Association building, west of Gaza City, killing five members of the al-Sawahi family and injuring at least four other people, including a young girl. The husband, his wife and their three children were killed while fleeing southwest from Gaza City, following orders from Israeli forces to evacuate, when their car was bombed – reportedly at least three times.

Safa News reported that five people, including children, were killed and others were wounded by an airstrike on a vehicle of displaced people west of Gaza City. The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med) specified that a couple from the Al-Sawalihi family and their three children were killed in the attack. The Palestine Online correspondent said the family and the injured were transported to the al-Shifa Medical Complex.

In a very graphic video taken by @yosef_naim_17 and published on Instagram, two men can be seen carrying an injured woman wearing a pink hijab and black outfit. In the background, a vehicle is on fire and onlookers try to put out the water with jugs of water. A young man covered in blood is being led away by another man and the bloody body of a man, severely injured and barely able to move, is lying next to the car in flames. The bodies of a deceased child and a deceased man are lying on the ground near the car while the body of another young man is being hugged and mourned by a heartbroken loved one. The bodies of at least two other deceased men, including one who had been riding a bicycle, are visible. In this video, a total of at least five people who have been killed, four men and a child, can be seen in addition to at least three others who were injured, including a woman.

In another video published by @tamerqdh, a man can be seen carrying an injured and bloody young girl away from the scene of the burning car. The injured woman, later seen in the video by @yosef_naim_17 being carried away, is being helped from the ground by a man while the bodies of others being cared for are seen in the background.

Journalist Nahed Hajjaj (nahed_hajjaj99) posted a video on Instagram of the injured girl seen in the video published by @tamerqdh being carried from the scene of the strike later being treated in al-Shifa Medical Complex. The young girl named Amer introduces herself to the journalist and it is obvious she is in severe pain – she is covered in blood and her hair is bandaged, and she has a loose bandage on her arm. She is lying on a metal hospital bed frame without a mattress while speaking to the journalist through her tears.

Many social media users resorted to X/Twitter and Facebook to condemn the attack. @Hesham Al-Basha wrote: “Their blood is being shed before our eyes, they are being burned alive. Your grief will not protect a child or deflect a shell. Your voice must become a scream, and your grief must become action. How do we accept to be silent witnesses when silence has become betrayal?”

Where sources identified a belligerent, all sources attributed the strike to Israeli forces. Euro-Med specified that the vehicle was “deliberately bombed three times”.