During the morning of Tuesday, October 24th 2023, seven civilians were killed and 10 others were seriously injured, including a father and two of his children, as a result of an alleged Israeli airstrike on the Abu Artema family home in Tal al-Sultan, west of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Ahmed Abu Artema, a journalist and peace activist from Rafah and born in 1984, wrote an article for Time Magazine detailing what happened when the airstrike hit his father’s home in Rafah City, exploding just five feet away from where he was sitting with his children, injuring ten, himself included, and killing seven others. Ahmed’s 13-year-old son Abdullah Ahmed Abu Artema, his 8-year-old niece Joud Abu Artema, his 55-year-old stepmother Intisar Mohammed Hasri Abu Artema, his 84-year-old aunt Fatima Ahmed Mohammed Barhoum (Umm Sedqi Barhoum), Fatima’s 52-year-old daughter Fawzia Hamdan Mohammed Barhoum Barhoum (Al-Akhras), Ahmed’s 66-year-old aunt Khairiyah (Umm Ahmed Mohammed Al-Akhras),and his neighbor 90-year-old Hamad Ziyad Ismail Abu Khatla were all killed in the strike. Two of Ahmed’s children, Muhammad Ahmed Abu Artema and Batoul Ahmed Abu Artema were injured in the strike. Ahmed’s brother Abu Waleed Abu Artema wrote that another aunt of the brothers, Banan Abu Artema (Selmy), was also injured in the strike. Ahmed’s son Abdelrahman was spared because he was waiting in a queue for bread.

Ahmed described how he was in Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis for several weeks being treated for his injuries, while his children Muhammad and Batoul and his sister Banan, who had to have her leg amputated after the strike, were able to leave Gaza and receive medical treatment abroad. Following the strike, Ahmed and his family were displaced multiple times between Rafah and Khan Younis as bombings escalated, documenting the horrible conditions they had to live in for months.

Maslah [Ziyad] Abu [Khatla] posted that his brother Hamad Ziyad Ismail Abu Khatla was also killed as a result of the strike. A picture of the elderly Hamad, dressed smartly in a traditional thawb, was included.

Abu Waleed Abu Artema posted on Facebook the day after the strike describing how many of his family members were affected. Abu Waleed memorialised his mother, the “beloved soul of my heart” as well as his “dear aunt[s]” Umm Ahmed al-Akhras and Umm Sadiqi al-Barhoum, the latter of whom he referred to as “the mother of martyrs”.

It seems that Ahmed and Abu Waleed were step brothers. Referring to Ahmed as his brother, Abu Waleed reported that Ahmed Abu Artema, the journalist, had been injured in the alleged strike. Abu Waleed also shared that Ahmed’s three children, Abdullah, Muhammad, and Batoul were injured in the incident, as were the brothers’ aunts Fatima and Banan Selmy, and Abu Waleed’s daughter Joud. Abu Waleed reported that Banan and Joud remained in intensive care along with Abdullah. However, later reports show that Abdullah and Fatima ultimately died.

While Abu Waleed referred to Ahmed as his brother and Fatima and Banan as his sisters, Ahmed referred to Fatima as his aunt and did not name Banan among those injured on this day. Ahmed did, however, report that ten people in total, including himself and his two children, were injured, so Banan may very well be included among those unnamed injured.

As the source from Ahmed is a direct interview, this assessment currently aligns with the family relations reflected in Ahmed’s interview, with the addition of Banan among those injured. As Abu Waleed referred to Banan and Fatima as his sisters, and Ahmed referred to Fatima as his aunt, Banan has been recorded as an aunt of Ahmed’s, in line with Ahmed’s reference to Fatima. The variance between the two brothers’ language may be due to the fact that the two men are step brothers. This assessment will be updated should additional information become available.

Palestine News posted an image, taken by Doaa Khaled, of a young woman in distress, with a young girl crying and holding on to her, as they walk away from the site of the alleged airstrike.

Doaa Khaled herself added photos of the destruction caused by the alleged airstrike, with the images showing a large crater in the ground, a pool of blood and a building with the walls missing from two floors. Pictures also showed people helping two men walk away from the destruction, they were covered in dust but appeared uninjured.

Reports explained how the house was situated behind the Al-Qadisiyah School and multiple sources reported that the house belonged to Khairy Abu Ratima.

The pictures showed that the reported strike occurred during the day.

Where possible, names have been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) lists, which include national ID numbers. Since October 26, 2023 the MoH has released seven lists, along with an additional list of medical professionals, which was released on September 17, 2024. Airwars is matching individuals to the first list where their name appeared. In regard to this incident, names are matched to the first and second ‘Palestinian Ministry of Health List of Fatalities in Gaza’ list, which were released on October 26, 2023 and January 21, 2024, respectively.

Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the strikes to Israeli forces.

This assessment was updated on February 27, 2025 to reflect information written by Ahmed Abu Artema in the Times article which was published on October 12, 2024. The civilian harm toll and list of victims were been updated based off of this newly available information.