On the evening of Saturday, October 14th 2023, at least 16 civilians, almost all women and children, were killed and others were injured by an alleged Israeli airstrike on the al-Houssana family house in al-Zuwaiyda, in the central Gaza Strip.

According to several posts on Facebook by family members, the following names of the victims are known: the matriarch of the family, grandmother Um Ahman was killed, along with her daughter in law, 45-year-old Lina Halasa. Lina’s children, 21-year-old Marah Halasa, 19-year-old Besan Halasa, and her 7- or 8-year-old son, Omar Halasa were also killed. Um Ahman’s other grandchildren, siblings 10-year-old Yusra Halasa, 8-year-old Sham Halasa, 16-year-old Asmaa Halasa, and Amina Halasa were also killed. A daughter-in-law, 28-year-old Islam Halasa, married to her son Ahmad, was killed. Islam’s son, 3-year-old Shaban Halasa was killed, as was her 1-year-old infant daughter, Narowz Halasa. Others, Aya Khamis Hassouna (25), Sharif Ata Hassouna, 5-year-old Sharif Ashraf Hassouna, and Nili Hassouna (wife of “Sharif Ata Hassouna”) were also killed.

According to a Facebook post by Ammar Dwaik, Hassan Halasa, the husband of Lina and father of Marah, Besan, and Omar, and only surviving member of the immediate family, works for the Khan Younis office of the Independent Commission for Human Rights as a researcher. Hassan’s colleagues, in remembering his family, called on “the United Nations and actors in the international community to stop this aggression and deliberate targeting of civilians by the Israeli … army, and to provide protection for them.”

Sherine Halasa shared on Facebook her grief for the death of her friend Besan Halasa, who was studying to be a doctor, and in her third year of medical school. In a heartfelt post she asks “What did she do to kill her, her mother, her sister, and her brother?” According to Sherine, Besan and her brother Omar were “always with each other, loved ones, their souls are attached to each other”. Besan’s best friend Dalia told The Independent that Besan “deserves life more than all of us. Besan is a 19-year-old girl who just loved life. A dreamy, ambitious, intelligent, kind girl who loves us and we love her. She loves all things.” Besan’s teacher Dr Belal Aldabbour wrote on X: “I mourn my student Bisan, a future doctor whose life was cut too short.”

In a Facebook post from Besan posted earlier this year, months before her death, she mourned the loss of her friend’s brother and wrote of her pain in living in the region: “Life in Gaza is unbearable. Everything here is unfit for life and every event here is painful. Our days are only nightmares, there is no life on this earth.” Later, in a post she wrote soon before her death, Besan said, “I have dreams I have not yet fulfilled,” and a “life that I have not fully lived.” Just two days before she was killed, Besan also mourned the loss of her teacher Dr. Al-Fadil Mohamed Al-Dafour.

In another post Sherine remembered Marah Halasa, a recent graduate who loved to draw and paint:, “Have fun, we will miss you a lot, I swear. We are going to come and congratulate you on your graduation. What should I do with the gift I brought you?”

Farid Hassouna posted a condolence message for the death of six members of the Hassouna family. However, researchers only found the names of four members of the family.

Multiple local sources including @PalinfoAr reported that “injuries” resulted from the strike but did not specify how many. Images posted by Ahmed Shawy show family members and friends mourning those killed whose bodies were wrapped in white and buried.

The Al-Bureij official page posted on Facebook that the strike occurred opposite the entrance to Al-Maghazi. The Phoenix Bird reported that four members of the Hassouna family and their relatives had left their home in the Al-Shujaiya neighborhood in North Gaza to escape bombing and were staying with family when the strike occurred.

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.