During the afternoon of Tuesday, October 17th 2023, 20 members of the Abu al-Naja family, including at least eight women, two of whom were pregnant, and at least eight children and four men were reportedly killed and dozens reportedly injured when Israeli aircrafts allegedly struck the homes of the Abu al-Naja and Madhi families located in the Al-Geneina neighbourhood of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. The Madhi family house was situated behind the Madi Petrol Station near Saddam Street was hit first, and the Abu al-Naja family house located near Al-Zahraa Clinic was hit second according to Twitter/X media user @Hamzaalnamla1.
Grandmother, 78 year-old Hajja Sami Farhana Musa Abu al-Naja (Umm Ibrahim) was killed alongside her son-in-law, 62 year-old Sami Suleiman Abu al-Naja and Sami’s children – his two sons 20 year-old Osama Sami Abu al-Naja and 31 year-old Muhammad Sami Abu al-Naja, and his two daughters 24 year-old Siham Sami Abu al-Naja and 17 year-old Mays Sami Abu al-Naja. Muhammad Sami Abu Al-Naja’s wife Asmaa al-Shaer, who was pregnant, and their daughter one year-old Eileen Muhammad Abu al-Naja also were killed in the attack.
A granddaughter of Farhana Musa Abu al-Naja, 33 year-old Karam Ibrahim Abu, was killed alongside her two sons 9 year-old Sami Ramzi Abu al-Naja and 11 year-old Khaled Ramzi Abu al-Naja. Another woman, 60 year-old Hoda Hussein Abu al-Naja (Umm Muhammad), died in the airstrike alongside her daughter* Lama Hassanein Abu al-Naja.
Ahmed Hassanein Abu al-Naja was also killed alongside his wife Ghadeer Ayman Mahmoud Abu al-Naja. The late Ahmed was mentioned in a Facebook condolence message by Ahmad Husayn as “mujahid” and “an educator of generations and has his military mark.” In a tribute by Al Arab he was called a “martyr hero”, so Airwars has classified Ahmed Hassanein Abu Al-Naja as a militant. His images attached to these Facebook testimonies show a young smiling bearded young man.
A pregnant woman, 27 year-old Nisreen Ahmed Hussein Abu Al-Naja died together with her daughter 2 year-old Habiba Suleiman Sami Abu Al-Naja. Their death was mourned by Nisreen’s brother Ibraheem Abu Alnaja in a Facebook testimony where he shared an image of Habiba.
One more family member, Ghaida Abdel Qader Abu Al-Naja, died alongside her son 10 year-old Suleiman Muhammad Hassanein Abu Al-Naja and her daughter, 4 year-old Hoda Muhammad Hassanein Abu Al-Naja.
Mustafa Hammam Hamdan Abu Naja was also killed in the airstrike.
Initially, Safa News reported that seven civilians had been killed in the attack on the house belonging to Mr. Sami Abu Al-Naja, but later social media posts by the relatives and friends, including the tributes by Abu Al-Naja Family Gathering Official Account, Alzaeem Yousef, Fares Ibrahim and Jawad Abu Naja helped to identify the names of 21 deceased members of Abu al-Naja family. The number and identities of the civilian casualties in the Madhi family is unknown.
The late Haji Sami Suleiman Abu Al-Naja was remembered in a Facebook post by Abbas Al-Am who wrote “May God have mercy on the uncle, the martyr, Sami Abu Naja, Abu Ramzi” and attached an image of a middle-aged bearded man in white clothes.
Sami’s son Osama Sami Abu al-Naja was mentioned in the tributes by Sam Ali and Waseem Mohammad Momar. The late Osama can be seen in the attached images as a young smiling bearded man.
The Ministry of the Interior quoted by multiple news sources announced that a number of people were killed and dozens were injured as a result of these airstrikes. The Palestinian Information Center, as well as a Facebook page named Abu al-Naja Family Gathering Official Account, reported that another house next to them was also struck in the attack.
Photos shared on social media showed the rubble and the destruction in the aftermath of the bombardment, with houses collapsed and a large area of space full of rubble.
A Facebook account Abu al-Naja Family Gathering Official Account shared photos of the bodies of those killed wrapped in sheets being carried through the streets alongside the images of funeral prayers at the cemetery in which one of the families was buried, with a timestamp of 16:22 on the same day as the attack, 17th October, 2023. The post included photos of the rubble of the attacked houses and rescue teams recovering the bodies of those killed from the rubble of the destroyed homes.
Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the strike to the Israeli military.
*When sources described victims killed as “children of” without further information available regarding their age, Airwars categorized those as children in its ranges.
Where possible, Airwars has matched names with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of nearly 7000 victims’ names, age and ID numbers released on October 26th.
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 incident occured in the afternoon.
