On November 6, 2023 four civilians – including one woman, and two children – were killed during an alleged Israeli airstrike on a residential apartment belonging to the Zohud family in the Jabalia Refugee Camp, near the Tawbah Mosque, in the Gaza Strip.
The airstrike on the Zohud family home resulted in the death of 35-year-old Bilal Jamal Zohud, his wife 30-year-old Raja Abu al-Qaraya (Zohud) and their seven year-old daughter, Lama Bilal Zohud. Bilal Zohud was described as “a dear knight and a generous brother, the owner of a cheerful smile and high morals”, by Ibhrahim Zeater in a Facebook post following his death. Their daughter, Lama Zohud, was praised for being a “memorizer of the Book of Allah” by Mahmoud Fouad – a cousin of Bilal Zohud – on Facebook. Mahmoud further described Bilal Zohud as a “sheikh,” along with an image of Bilal in a Taqiyah.
Following the airstrike, a neighbour of the Zohud family posted online that his infant daughter, Sila Basil al-Kahout, had been critically injured during the strike. @PessoPesso requested in a Facebook post that the community “please pray for my daughter, Sila, as she is now in intensive care after being targeted.” A video accompanying the post shows the complete destruction of the Zohud family residence, and the extensive damage to the neighbouring home of Sia Basil Al-Kahout. The windows looking onto the Zohud residence have been blown out, and a pram covered in dust and rubble can be seen inside the living room of the al-Kahout home.
The next morning, on November 7th 2024, the mother of Sila Basil al-Kahout, SafaaAl-Kahout, announced the death of her daughter who was 1 year and 10 months old at the time of her death. In a Facebook post, Safa al-Kahout commiserated the death of her infant child asking that “God have mercy on you, enlighten my eyes, and give me patience in your absence”.
In a Facebook post on November 9th, Safa al-Kahout described her daughter as someone who “enters the heart without permission.” The post also talked about the infant’s love of jelly and recounted how “everyone would bring her jelly because it was the thing she loved the most, and by God your father distributed jelly to all the children.”
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 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 third ‘Palestinian Ministry of Health List of Fatalities in Gaza’ list, which was released on April 1st, 2024.
Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the strikes to Israeli forces.