On Monday, 23 October 2023, at least one civilian member of the Arooq family were killed and a number of civilians were injured by an alleged Israeli airstrike that struck the Arooq family home near the Nasser junction in the Jabalia Refugee Camp in the northern governorate of the Gaza Strip. Another member of the Arooq family was killed and has been identified as a militant.
Shehab Agency’s initial reportage showed an image of a smoke cloud, purportedly from the alleged strike, with a caption stating that the Arooq family home had been bombed. Emergency Now Palestine also shared an image of a giant plume of smoke rising from the bombed home. Al-Qamari Al-Sawari Abu Shujaa shared a video, possibly from a neighboring home, of a family sitting together before a nearby explosion shatters the windows, injuring them and causing severe distress to the children. They added the caption “Israeli warplanes bomb an inhabited house near Nassar junction in the Jabaliya camp in northern Gaza, and there are a number of injuries and lives under the rubble.”
Photographs shared by the Gaza Police and Northern Gaza Governorate page on Facebook show medical teams, civilians, and Civil Defense crews recovering a body from the rubble of the completely collapsed building, as well as “a number of injuries”; one of the images showed a heavily wounded and bleeding young man being helped by civilians. The Medical Services Gaza Strip page shared similar images saying, “The ambulance and emergency teams of the General Directorate of Military Medical Services found a dead body…and a number of injuries,” which was corroborated by local and social media such as al-Watan. Twitter/X user @hanyelkordi noted that there were a “number of casualties and survivors under the rubble,” while @PSLK1154 stated that there were “martyrs and injuries.” @EyeonPalestine shared a video of the destroyed building, alleging that the bombing was done by “Israeli warplanes.” A disturbing video posted by Mostafa Mohammed Sabaa showed rescue workers pulling out the remains of a killed civilian from the rubble, before wrapping them in a sheet, adding the caption, “O Lord, grant us forgiveness and patience/Cruel scenes from the house bombing of the [Arooq] family in the middle of #Jabaliya camp.” A number of condolence posts from family members reported that two people were killed in the alleged strike.
The two civilians killed were listed by relatives as Mohammad Hassan Arooq (Abu Sami) (49, a militant) and his cousin Faraj Hassan Arooq (Abu Hasan) (57). According to Hamza Abu Eltarabesh, Mohammed was the “Muezzin” (official leading the call to prayer) of the local mosque, while Faraj was described as a “social quiet man” working as a taxi driver. The images shared of the two of them showed an elderly man and a smiling, bearded, middle-aged man with a shaved head.
When Airwars first published this incident on October 23, 2023, no open sources were found to suggest that Mohammad Hassan Arooq was a militant. As such, Mohammad Hassan Arooq 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 18, 2026, a Telegram account affiliated with Hamas’ armed wing, Al-Qessam Brigades, published a tribute to Mohammad Hassan Arooq, identifying him as a fighter. As such, Airwars updated Mohammad Hassan Arooq’s status from civilian to militant, and changed the minimum number of civilians reportedly killed in this incident from two to one.
Both victims’ names were matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of fatalities in Gaza released on October 26th, 2023.
Where sources identified the belligerents, all sources attributed the strikes to Israeli forces.