Shortly before 6pm on Sunday, 29th October 2023, at least 35 civilians, including at least eight women and 16 children, were reportedly killed and dozens were injured in an alleged Israeli airstrike on the home of the Shamiya family in Al Shati Refugee Camp, west of Gaza City.
@Shaabradio was the first to report the incident on Twitter/X at 5:57pm, citing a number of casualties. Twitter/X user @Q1Ud8iCqzNOuDkr shared a video showing rescue efforts in the darkness. Mahmoud Abu Znada Media Platform reported via Facebook that while the home belonged to the Shamiya family, other displaced families, including the Bakr family, were also sheltering in the home at the time of the attack.
Social media tributes by family relatives and friends helped to identify the names of 35 victims of the strike.
Abu Safia family
A 51-year-old woman named Raja Abdul Raouf Abu Safia (Umm Baraa), a widow of Samih Abu Safiya, was killed in the attack alongside her five sons – 27-year-old Baraa Samih Odeh Abu Safia, 22-year-old Osama Samih Odeh Abu Safia, 19-year-old Ahmed Samih Odeh Abu Safia, 16-year-old Hossam Samih Odeh Abu Safia, and 14-year-old Amr Samih Odeh Abu Safia. A 56-year-old man named Samih Odeh Abu Safia was found among the list of victims, possibly indicating that Raja’s husband was killed during this incident.
The death of Raja and her children was mourned by her brother Osama Radwan in a Facebook post.
A 30-year-old man named Muhammad Wajih Abu Safia was also named among the victims.
Dahrouj family
A pregnant woman named Aya Amer Dahrouj (age unknown) was reportedly killed in the attack according to Facebook posts from friends and family as well as a report from Al Jazeera Syria. Aya was reportedly a Syrian woman who was living in Gaza. Her infant daughter Rayhana Abdullah Shamiya was also killed in the attack. According to the Facebook account “tell me bird”, she was pregnant at the time of death and was married to Dr. Abdullah Bassam Shamiya, with other sources reporting only that Dr. Abdullah’s wife and daughter were killed in the attack.
A Facebook post from Abdul Aziz Baraa reported that a Syrian family from Maarat al-Numan in Idlib, Syria, had been killed in the attack alongside photos of a young smiling toddler, with a specific mention of Aya and Rayhana.
Shamiya family
A man named Bassam Shamiya reportedly died in the attack along with his two daughters and two sons. The two daughters of Bassam were 17-year-old Areej Bassam Shamiya and 24-year-old Fatima Bassam Shamiya, and the two sons were 31-year-old Anas Bassam Shamiya and Hamza Bassam Shamiya (age unknown).
Anas Bassam Shamiya was killed along with his wife, 26-year-old Suheir Zuhair Juma Shamiya, their sons Malik Anas Bassam Shamiya (age unknown) and Noureddine Anas Bassam Shamiya (age unknown) and their infant daughter, three-month-old Jori (Juri) Anas Bassam Shamiya.
A Facebook post from Samia Shamiya stated that Suheir was just about to turn 27, and suggested that Jori was under one year old as the post wrote that Suheir would have been celebrating her first birthday with Jori. Samia shared a number of photographs alongside the post showing two young boys and a baby girl.
Radwan family
According to the Facebook tribute by Osama Radwan, victims of the alleged Israeli airstrike included numerous members of Radwan family, including six children of his sister Umm Ali – Ahmed, Mahmoud, Abdel, Walaa, Afnan and Tasneem, – and her grandchildren.
The 31-year-old son of Umm Ali Ahmed Fathi Radwan was killed alongside his wife (name and age unknown), their two-year-old son Abdul Rahman Ahmed Fathi Radwan and their one-year-old daughter, Najwa Ahmed Fathi Radwan.
Another son of Umm Ali, Ahmed’s brother, 28-year-old Mahmoud Fathi Radwan was killed alongside his wife (name and age unknown), their son Muhammad Mahmoud Fathi Radwan and their three-month old daughter named Najwa Mahmoud Fathi Radwan.
Umm Ali’s son 25-year-old Abdel Rahman Fathi Radwan was killed along with his two-year-old son Ezzedine Abdel Rahman Radwan and six-month-old daughter Mira Abdel Rahman Radwan.
Mohammed Adel wrote a touching tribute to the three sons of Umm Ali, writing “With hearts squeezed by pain but believing in God’s will and destiny, we consider them martyrs, God willing”, sharing an image of the three smiling brothers dressed in fashionable suits.
Three daughters of Umm Ali – Walaa Fathi Ali Radwan, 19-year-old Afnan Fathi Ali Radwan and 16-year-old Tasneem Fathi Ali Radwan were also named amongst those killed in the attack. According to Doaa Radwan’s’s Facebook post, Walaa was killed alongside her daughters, Hoor and Jumana.
Two others, a five-year-old girl named Lina Sameh Mohamed Shamiya and a 30-year-old woman named Hoda Muhammad Khalil Shamiya were also reportedly killed on 29 October 2023 according to the site Shireen’s list; with the similarity in their family names it is possible that their deaths could be related to this incident, but it is not completely clear. They have been listed among the victims of this incident until further information comes to light.
The total number of possible deaths as a result of the alleged Israeli airstrike on the Shamiya family home could therefore be as high as 37, with Wafa News reporting that dozens were also injured.
Where possible, names of the victims have been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health lists of fatalities in Gaza released on July 24, 2024.
Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the strike to the Israeli military.