On Wednesday, October 11th 2023, an alleged Israeli airstrike killed between eight and 12 civilians, including four children, in a strike on the Abu al-Rish family house. The house was reportedly destroyed, while neighbouring homes in the center of the Khan Younis Camp, were severely damaged.
In addition to the children the attack, which according to the Al Mezan human rights group came without warning, killed five women and an elderly man, according to Alghad news. According to Wafa news, the victims belonged to four different families – five of them from the Abu al-Rish family, a woman and her infant from the Abu Shamala family, a boy from the Sharab family, and a young man from the Barghout family. The number of injured civilians was estimated between several and “dozens”.
It is reported that the airstrike killed the family of the director of Tribal Relations at the Department of Refugee Affairs, Abu Kayed Abu al-Rish, who survived the attack. His wife Hoda Khaled Rashid Sharab was reported killed alongside their three children: son Ahmed Muhammad Abu Al-Rish, daughters Iman Muhammad Abu Al-Rish and Sajal Muhammad Abu Al-Rish. Two children from another wife – a daughter Sama Muhammad Abu Al-Rish and a son Khaled Muhammad Abu al-Rish – were also identified as injured by Abu Kayed Abu al-Rish, who wrote in his Facebook post that Sama and Khaled were “injured and in danger”. Abu Kayed’s nephew, Ahmad Amein Abu Al-Rish, mentioned in his Facebook testimony that Khaled Muhammad Abu Al-Rish and Sama Muhammad Abu Al-Rish had been killed, so it is not clear whether they survived the attack.
According to Abu Kayed’s post, the attack also killed his relatives from the Abu Shamala family, a woman and her two infants, as well as ten-year-old boy Khaled Ali Sharab, nephew of the Hoda Khaled Rashid Sharab.
Another victim of the deadly strike was a neighbor of Abu Kayed, Khalil Bargout. Relatives and neighbours mourned the loss of Khalil, with tributes online: “To God’s mercy/My cousin / Khalil Ibrahim Bargout/We consider him a martyr….Allah is sufficient for me, and Allah is the best trustee”, “And do not think that those who were killed in the cause of God are dead; rather, they are alive with their Lord, being provided for….There was no fear for them, nor did they grieve”, and “ May God be pleased with you, may God accept you as our neighbors and loved ones, the Abu Al-Rish and the beloved Khalil Bargout.”
Abu Kayed wrote that the attack caused injuries “due to the force of the bombing that shook the camp.” Quds News mentioned several “injuries”, noting that medical sources said “the number of martyrs is likely to increase as ambulance crews were unable to extract all the martyrs and wounded from under the rubble, and due to the population density in the area.” On social media, Diya Taher posted that her cousin “was injured in the bombing of the Abu Al-Rish family home”, though Airwars was unable to identify the name of the cousin.
The Facebook posts by Khan Younis Facebook page, Ahmad Arafat and Alamal neighbourhood show the devastating aftermath of the bombing, noting that “Civil Defense crews search for survivors under the rubble of the Abu Al-Rish family home”.
Among the prominent members of the Abu Al-Rish family were Ahmed Abu Al-Rish (Abu Kayed), a prominent member of the Fatah political party in Gaza killed by Israeli forces in 1993, according to Quds News citing Palestinian News Agency Wafa.
Where possible, names have been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of fatalities in Gaza released on October 26th, 2023.
Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the strikes to Israeli forces.
Due to the scale and urgency of Airwars’ assessment process, all images have been automatically uploaded to each assessment with the graphic filter applied to protect users. We have also included all images identified from the sources, which may also include any imagery of combatants.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
