On Tuesday, October 17th, 2023, an alleged Israeli airstrike on the Haniyeh family house located in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City resulted in the death of at least 14 members of the Haniyeh family, while a large number of family members sustained moderate injuries, according to Gaza Now Facebook post.

Many of those killed were relatives of Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas political bureau in the Gaza Strip, though reports indicate he was not harmed in the attack. Hamas officials did not comment on his status.

The condolence messages in the social media helped to identify four family members killed in the deadly attack on the house reportedly belonging to Ismail Haniyeh’s brother. The bombardment killed Ismail Haniyeh’s son Hazem Ismail Haniyeh, his 50-year old brother Abdul Khaleq Khaled Haniyeh (Abu Malik), his nephew Abdel Khaled Haniyeh and his brother’s grandson Ahmed Haniyeh. It was reported that “a number of his grandsons” were killed, but the name of only one of them is known.

When Airwars first published this incident on January 1, 2024, no open sources were found to definitively show that Hazem Ismail Haniyeh was a militant. As such, Hazem Ismail Haniyeh was recorded as a civilian. 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 May 19, 2026, a Telegram account affiliated with Hamas’ armed wing, Al-Qessam Brigades, published a tribute to Hazem Ismail Haniyeh, identifying him as a “martyred Qessami fighter”. As such, Airwars updated Hazem Ismail Haniyeh’s status from civilian to militant, and changed the minimum number of civilians reportedly killed in this incident from 14 to 13, to account for the possibility that Hazem’s death may have been included in the total fatality counts reported by sources.

Abdul Khaleq Khaled Haniyeh was remembered in a Facebook post by “My Hope in God is Big” where he was called “ the cousin who is dear to all of our hearts”. The post also featured an image of the late Abdul – a bearded man in glasses and a white shirt.

Where possible, names have been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of fatalities in Gaza released on October 26th, 2023.

When sources identified a belligerent, they attributed the strike to Israeli forces.