Two civilians, a father and son, were reportedly killed by an alleged Israeli bombing of their home next to Rabaa al-Adawiya, west of Rafah in the Gaza Strip likely on or before 27th October 2023, when reports on the casualties began to emerge online.

Abdul Rahman Essam Salah, posting on Facebook, named those killed as his father 57-year-old Essam Abdel Fattah Salah and his brother 19-year-old Osama Essam Abdel Fattah Salah. He paid tribute to both men, writing of his brother “Osama, parting with you is difficult” and sharing a selfie taken together with his brother.

Mourning his father, he said “You are gone and your memories will never be forgotten.” He continued, “Dear father, you have passed on to me morals, knowledge, and love for humans”, further describing him as “the great, mighty professor.” Abdul Rahman also shared an image of his late father – a middle-aged man with grey hair, a grey beard, and dressed in a brown shirt.

Multiple sources, including local journalists Adel Zourub and Raed Hammad, reported on 29th October that the body of Osama Essam Salah was recovered from the rubble of the house days after the strike and transported to the al-Najjar Hospital.

The exact date of the incident was not identified by any source. Whilst Abdul Rahman Essam Salah paid tribute to his brother and father on Facebook on 27th October, it is possible that the incident occurred prior to this date.

While none of the sources explicitly attributed the strike to Israeli forces, Essam and Osama’s names were found on the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of fatalities in Gaza released on October 26th, 2023, which explicitly mentions that names on the list are “victims of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip”. Therefore the strike status of this incident has been graded as a single source claim.