At approximately 6 AM on Saturday, November 4, 2023, four members of the Al-Najjar family were killed, and others were injured, by an alleged Israeli airstrike on their family home near the Rafah garage in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. Among the victims was 59-year-old Sobhia Kamel Ibrahim al-Najjar, who died alongside her two daughters, 37-year-old Sha’aer Walid Hassan al-Najjar and 28-year-old Rewaa Walid Hassan al-Najjar. Rewaa’s young son, 5-year-old Kamal Moataz Kamal Shakshak, was also killed in the attack.
Moataz Shakshak, Kamal’s grieving father, mourned the loss of his “dear son” and “only moon.” Kamal, affectionately known as Kimo, was five years old at the time of his death. He was described as a “beautiful” boy with dark, shoulder-length curly hair, pale olive skin, and a bright smile, which radiated in photographs shared by his mourning relatives and close family friends, including his aunt, Rasha Kamal, uncle, Mohammed K. Shakshak, and Moaztaz Shakshak’s friend, Mohammed Aram. One graphic image, however, shows a deceased Kamal’s pale and ashen body, wearing a light grey top and draped in a worn mauve and white blanketcloth. A pair of hands tenderly cradles his face, while another gently rests on his hair, still matted with rubble.
Abo Ased al-Najjar was also among the grieving family members, mourning the loss of his aunt Sobhia. On Facebook, he shared a video capturing the aftermath of the attack. The footage shows crowds gathered around the remnants of a building still engulfed in flames, while volunteers hauled large rocks from the rubble.
Another video from Al Jazeera offered a closer view of the aftermath of the attack on the Al-Najjar home. Firefighters were shown extinguishing the flames engulfing the site, while volunteers worked to rescue victims trapped beneath the rubble. Among the scenes was the recovery of a young child’s body, lifted and covered by emergency responders. The child was likely Kamal, as the grey shirt visible in the footage matched the one he wore in photographs shared by his grieving family in their tributes.
Several sources, including Al-Mayadeen Live and Addiyar Newspaper, reported “a number” of injuries resulting from the attack, though the exact number remains unclear. While most sources describing the incident as a “bombing”, Moataz Shakshak referred to the attack as originating from an “aircraft.”
All 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 six 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 second ‘Palestinian Ministry of Health List of Fatalities in Gaza’ list, which was released on January 7th, 2024.
Where sources identified belligerents, all sources attributed the attack to the Israeli military.