Around 10pm on Saturday, October 21, 2023, at least five civilians, including a woman and a child, were killed and at least seven others were injured, when the Al-Arja family home located on George Street behind Adnan Abutain in the Al Geneina neighborhood in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, was allegedly bombed by an Israeli military aircraft. A sixth individual was killed and has been identified as a militant.

Videos and Images depicted civil defense crews and others searching for victims beneath the rubble of the Al-Arja family home. Facebook user Murafah shared an image of a group of young men carrying out one victim’s body. Murafah reported that “central emergency crews in Rafah retrieve the bodies of two martyrs (a man and a woman) from the rubble of the Al-Arja family’s house in the Al-Tanour neighborhood, east of the city.” Facebook user Adlitaha1 reported about seven injured civilians. Twitter/X user @Alaqsavoice_Brk reported that casualties reached Al-Najjar Hospital but did not give exact figures.

The social media testimonies by family and friends helped to identify the family members who were killed. A 43-year-old woman Waradhaa Muhammad Madi was killed alongside her husband, 60-year-old Ali Odeh Allah Mahmoud Al-Arja, and their two sons: Muhammad Ali Al-Arja (a militant) and 25-year-old Ahmed Gadallah Odeh Allah Ali Al-Arja.

When Airwars first published this incident on May 1, 2024, no open sources were found to suggest that Muhammad Ali Al-Arja was a militant. As such, Muhammad Ali Al-Arja 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 July 19, 2026, a Telegram account affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)’s armed wing, published a tribute to Muhammad Ali Al-Arja, identifying him as a fighter. As such, Airwars updated Muhammad Ali Al-Arja’s status from civilian to militant, and changed the minimum number of civilians reportedly killed in this incident from six to five.

Facebook user Gaser M Arja shared an image of the late Ali, an elderly man with a grey beard and in a keffiyeh as well as images of his sons.

Facebook user Yasser shared a photo of the smiling young man, Ahmed Ali Al-Arja, wearing a light gray polo shirt, with the comment, ‘More than 14 hours under the rubble The body of the family’s son, the good-natured young man #Ahmed_Ali_Al-Arja, was found as an unplanned future martyr??’

Ali’s brother-in-law, 32-year-old Ahmed Muhammad Al-Arja, and a 10-year-old boy Ahmed Abd Rabbuh Darwish Al-Arja were also killed in the airstrike. It was initially reported that Ahmed and his mother were critically injured, with later reports that the boy died of his injuries.

Facebook user Mohammed mourned the death of his nephew Ahmed Abd Rabbuh Darwish Al-Arja, sharing a photo of the young boy in a beige jacket and striped shirt posing for the camera alongside an image of what appears to be Ahmed with bruised and burnt skin on a hospital bed.

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.