At least eight civilian members of the Shamlakh family, including three children, were reportedly killed when an alleged Israeli aircraft bombed their home on Street 10, south of Gaza City, on October 8th, 2023. The strike is believed to have occurred at approximately 8:30pm. Two other members of the family were killed and have been identified as militants.
Grandfather Abdulnaser Asaad Shamlakh was 56 years old, and was reportedly killed together with his wife, 47-year old Soha Jawan al-Saftawi. Their son, Ahmed Abdel Nasser Shamlakh, 25 (a militant), and his wife, Warda Khamis Jibril, 21 were also killed. They had two children: two-year-old Abdulnaser Shamlakh, and an infant, Omar Shamlakh, who has been reported as either three or five months old. Abdulnaser and Soha had four other sons killed in the bombing. Marwan Shamlakh was 22. His brother Assad Shamlakh (a militant) was 20. Mohammed Shamlakh was 18. The youngest, Yazan Shamlakh, was 10. All were killed in the strike.
Several sources described Assad Shamlakh as a freelance journalist killed in his home with nine other members of his family, in Sheikh Ijlin.
When Airwars first published this incident, no open sources were found to suggest that Assad and Ahmed Shamlahk were militants. As such, Assad and Ahmed Shamlakh were recorded as civilians. This was in line with Airwars’ methodology which is employed across all conflicts we document, and informed by international standards regarding the ‘presumption of civilian status'. Specifically, as outlined by the International Committee of the Red Cross, civilian status is assumed until evidence is identified to the contrary.
On August 14, 2026, a Telegram account affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)'s armed wing published tributes to Assad and Ahmed, identifying both as fighters. As such, Airwars updated Assad and Ahmed's status from civilian to militant and changed the minimum number of civilians reportedly killed in this incident from ten to eight.
Several other sources alleged that twelve people had been killed, though it is unclear who these other two civilians were. No other names have been recorded.
The Palestine chapter of Defense for Children International claimed Israeli forces had fired “several missiles” at the building. Aawsat_News (@aawsat_News), quoting the governmental media office, maintained that the aircraft bombed the home “without warning.”
The home, located in the Sheikh Ajlin neighborhood, consisted of two floors containing four apartments. It housed three families.
The funeral for the family is believed to have taken place the next day, on October 9th, 2023. According to Jacobin, “Shamlakh’s family is one of now dozens of cases of Israeli bombing wiping out not just entire families, but entire family bloodlines.”
Airwars has been able to match all the names of those identified with names listed in the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of nearly 7000 victims’ names and ID numbers released on October 26th.
Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the strikes to Israeli forces.