Shortly before 2 AM on November 6, 2023, at least five civilians, including a mother and her four children, were killed by an alleged Israeli airstrike against the Abu Alwan family home located in the Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood, west of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
According to several accounts, 42-year-old Maysoun Abdul Qader Barhoum was killed alongside her four children – 14-year-old daughter Lian (Layan) Talat Barhoum, 12-year-old son Abdul Rahman Talat Barhoum, 10-year-old son Muhammad Talat Barhoum and eight-month-old son Ahmed Talat Barhoum. A post by Al Jazeera highlighted how the airstrike happened unannounced while the victims were sleeping.
Maysoun was the wife of Talaat Barhoum, the Director of Public Relations and Media at Al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah. In a Facebook post, Haneen Abo Shammala offered her condolences to the family of Talat Barhoum, “her elder brother, teacher, and colleague at work.” She shared a message mentioning how the child Abdul Rahman Talat Barhoum had memorized the Book of Allah, and Muhammad Talat Barhoum had memorized two-thirds of it. She also mentioned that the youngest son Ahmed Talat Barhoum was only eight months old.
The video of the post showed Talaat Barhoum in his hospital uniform, bidding farewell to his family in white body bags on stretchers, with their faces exposed. They were surrounded by several people mourning and saying their goodbyes at dawn. Several accounts posted a graphic picture of the five body bags, with the face of the youngest exposed. A Facebook post by Amal Hadid shared a memory of the child Abdelrahman (Abdul Rahman Talat Barhoum) holding a poster and smiling at what appears to be a ceremony.
A Facebook post by Magdy Juma Barhoum described Maysoun Abdul Qader Barhoum as a “righteous mother, a virtuous sister, and a dutiful daughter.” Magdy shared her pride in the three children for memorizing the Book of Allah, and called the youngest Ahmed “the infant bird of paradise.” She called for God to give the remaining family patience and comfort and concluded with a picture of Talat Barhoum and two other men holding a small body bag, with three more body bags on orange stretchers on the floor. In another Facebook post, Heba W. Kab shares her condolences to the family, describing Maysoun Abdul Qader Barhoum as an honorable teacher. Attached to the post is a picture of her smiling with Maysoun and a small grinning child, at the Al-Aqsa University.
Mohammed Abdeljader Abu Alwan shared another post, in which he mourned the loss of his dear “second sister” Maysoun, and her children. “I tremble and cry and I cannot speak or write about you, my dear second sister/ Maysoun” he wrote. He attached a collage including several images of Lian Talat Barhoum, Abdul Rahman Talat Barhoum, Muhammad Talat Barhoum, Ahmed Talat Barhoum, and Maysoun Abdul Qader Barhoum, smiling at the camera. One of the pictures depicted them in white body bags, lying on orange stretchers.
Other sources put the death toll as high as 15: a post by Eastnowa included a picture of infrastructure engulfed in flames, reporting that 15 people were killed in the alleged aircraft bombing of the Abu Alwan family home. In a tweet, Shehab Agency also claimed that 15 lives were lost in the airstrike.
Airwars has matched the names of the five named victims with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of victims released on July 24th, 2024.
Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the strike to the Israeli military.