Around 5:20 p.m. on Saturday, December 30, 2023, a shepherd Mohammed Hamid al-Amir Bariwas killed alongside his wife, his son, and his nephew, one of them a child, while two people were reportedly injured as a result of an alleged Israeli airstrike on a farm located between the villages al-Zahabia (Al-Dhahabiya) and Sheikh Said, south of the city of Aleppo, Syria.

Multiple sources such as Asharq al-Awsat, al-Arabiya, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on the incident, some of them noting that those villages were close to the ​​Al-Nairab Military Airport which contained warehouses and headquarters for Iranian militias.

Twitter/X user @SAMSyria0 reported that four people were killed: Mohammed, his wife, his son, and his nephew, and that they lived near a warehouse where sheep were kept. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, eight people were killed in the strike, among them five who reportedly worked with pro-Iranian militias, including a Syrian (presumably Mohammaed Hamid al-Amir Bari because it was mentioned that he was killed alongside his wife, son, and nephew.) Based on this information, Mohammed’s civilian status is contested.

Facebook account Kawkab Halab, referencing al-Mayadeen news channel, claimed that the strike killed three people and injured two.

Nidal Kaddour on Facebook mourned the death of Mohammad and his family in a post along with a picture of him. Mohammad was a man who appeared to be in his forties with black hair and eyes and a thin frame. Sidra al-Shibli on Facebook shared the same picture of Mohammad, mourning Mohammad and his family’s death.

According to Twitter/X user @SAMSyria, the airstrike also damaged a depot for food supplies that included lentils and rice and destroyed an abandoned warehouse where sheep were kept. Pictures the account shared showed the abandoned warehouse destroyed, the sheep dead, and sacks of grains ripped open.

Kamal Jafa on Facebook posted pictures of the area where the airstrike occurred with smoke trails visible from the missiles in the distance. Multiple sources such as the Facebook account Amer al-Ali shared the same picture of an area targeted with plumes of smoke rising in the distance.

Multiple accounts on Facebook, such as Kareem Tebi, shared photos from the funeral service of some of the victims, with three caskets seen on the ground and a small body in a burial shroud on top of one of the caskets. Judging from that, one victim was a small child. Dozens of people were present at the ceremony. Tebi said in the post that the funeral was “supposed to be worthy of the magnitude of the martyrdom” both in terms of moral support and media coverage. He added that “an entire family perished as a result of the aggression.” In another photo, people can be seen preparing burial shrouds for the bodies of the Bari family. Many of the attendees look distressed and in tears.

In a video shared by Kareem Tebi on Facebook from the funeral service titled “Aleppo bids farewell to the martyrs of the Israeli aggression,” the father of the woman who was killed (Mohammad’s wife) holding back tears said that “Israel is the one that [carried out the] strike….my daughter was martyred, her husband and their son and his brother’s son as well.” He said that he was heartbroken and that what occurred was tragic. “Civilians, they are killing civilians. [He was a] shepherd who was farming,” he added.

The video also showed the site of the attack, with a warehouse destroyed and a damaged house (presumably inhabited by the victims) with some of the laundry initially hung outside, on the floor.

According to multiple sources such as Asharq al-Awsat, the farm where the airstrike occurred is part of the town of al-Nayrab, where the Nayrab military airport is located, which is an area that is known to be regularly used for Iranian arms deliveries and the movement of troops. According to Twitter/X user @khaleedalkhteb, areas south of Aleppo are areas where Iranian militias are stationed and have influence.

The Al-Buraq media platform on Facebook reported that the strike hit areas where regime “gangs” and Iranian militias were present. The location where the strike occurred was also near the Aleppo International Airport, where operations remained unaffected, according to multiple sources such as SANA.

The Syrian Defense Ministry, as reported by the state news agency SANA, said that the missile came “from the direction of the Mediterranean Sea, west of Lattakia, targeting a number of points south of Aleppo City”. According to Amer al-Ali on Facebook, around 10 missiles in total were launched from above the Mediterranean Sea towards the city of Aleppo.

The Syrian Defense Ministry did not mention that Syrian Air Defense forces countered the airstrikes and that the sound of explosions heard in Aleppo resulted from that, which was reported by multiple sources such as BAZ news agency and Asharq News – Syria. Other sources such as Kamal Jafa on Facebook also reported that the sound of explosions was heard in the city of Aleppo and that Syria’s air defense systems countered Israeli airstrikes.

All sources that reported on the airstrike attributed it to solely the Israeli military.

The incident occured at approximately 5:20 pm local time.