One woman and three young children were reportedly killed and at least two people were injured on Sunday, October 15th, 2023, when an alleged Israeli airstrike hit the home of the Ramlawi family in the vicinity of al-Ghafri junction on al-Jalaa street in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip. Multiple sources describe the house being destroyed and this can be seen in photos posted by Gaza Alkhabr, among other sources. This incident was covered by a number of news sources.
The strike reportedly claimed the lives of one woman and her children. Alaa Maher Al Ramlawi, also known as Umm Suhaib, was killed along with her two sons – Suhaib Al Ramlawi and Jamal Al Din Al Ramlawi, and her daughter Nada Al Ramlawi.
The sources did not mention an exact number of those injured, however, photos from the incident show at least two men being treated for injuries and @ShehabAgency described “serious injuries” resulting from the strike. This observation is reflected in the civilian casualty range for this incident.
Heartfelt tributes to Alaa and her children were posted on Facebook by family members Wafa Nasrallah, Mohamed H El Sarraj, Omar Maher and Wafa Mohamed. The tribute by Omar Maher included photos of Alaa and her children (who appear to be young) as well as a video of a small water well with a sign dedicating the well to Alaa’s memory. A post by Aldakhleea Palestinian was also accompanied by photographs of civil defence and medical service crews searching the rubble for victims and treating people with injuries.
On October 9th, 2024 the Airwars Investigations Unit, along with Sky News, published an investigation geolocating and matching airstrike footage released by the Israeli military with incidents in the Airwars archive. In total, Airwars’ team identified 17 strikes leading to civilian harm from the first month of the war, of which the Israeli military itself had published footage. This strike was among the 17. As such this incident has been reclassified as a declared Israeli strike, rather than a likely one.
It should be noted that while the text accompanying the Israeli Air Force’s strike footage – a clip of which was matched to this incident – claimed that “The Commander of the Hamas Southern District of National Security was killed,” Airwars’ research team did not find any evidence through open sources showing that an individual with militant affiliations was also killed in this incident. As such, no militants have been included in the count of fatalities. This will be updated should additional information become available.
Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the strikes to Israeli forces.