An alleged Israeli airstrike on October 20th 2023 reportedly killed as many as 20 people, many of them members of the Jaarour family. Others were also injured when their family home near the Al Yarmouk Mosque in the Al Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City was struck.
An initial report from Shehab News Agency claimed there were at least six people killed and a number of injured as a result. This number rose throughout the day as more victims were identified. Safa News, quoting the Ministry of Interior, reported that a number of people had died and others been wounded when Israeli aircrafts allegedly struck two homes in the Al Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City, that of the Jaarour family and the Abu Sharia family. All other sources cited between 17 and 20 killed in the attack.
Those reportedly killed in the attack include 40 year old Wafiyah Khalil Abdo, her son 21 year old Hammam Samara Jaarour, and her two daughters, 20 year old Ibtisam Samara Jaarour and 19 year old Gharam Samara Jaarour.
Sammour Salman Jaarour (43) was reportedly killed alongside his wife Umm Anas Jaarour Qazat and four of their children, daughters Ibtisam Sammour Jaarour (15) and Farah Sammour Jaarour (5), as well as two of their sons, Salman Sammour Jaarour (12) and Isbaai Sammour Jaarour.
Umm Muhammad Jaarour Al-Sutri was reported to have been killed in the attack along with two of her daughters, Janan Samer Jaarour (8) and Mirna Samer Jaarour (4), and son Tim Samer Jaarour (less than 1 year).
Raesah Hamada Jaarour (67), Louay Al-Ajrami (less than 1 year), and Um Tameh Habib, were also reportedly amongst those killed in the attack bringing the total of named victims killed as a result of the airstrike to 17.
A Facebook post by Hassan Jaarour corroborated that he had lost 20 members of his family in the attack, most of them children. Rasheed Jaarour posted a similar message on Facebook writing that 17 members of the family had died. Many other friends and relatives posted across Facebook mourning the loss and again listing children amongst those dead.
A Facebook post by El Hassan Ali Baker mourned the loss of his cousin Wafiyah Khalil Abdo’s daughter, and claimed that the bombing was concentrated around the Bayti area in Tal al-Hawa on October 20th.
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 strike to the Israeli military.