Before dawn on March 18, 2025, Hamas’ head of general security service in Khan Yunis, Ayman Salah Khalil Isleh, was killed along with 13 civilians from the Abu Al-Khair and Isleh families, including three women and seven children in declared Israeli airstrikes. At least one man was injured in the strikes on tents hosting displaced persons at the camp in Al-Mawasi, west of Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip.
The overall total death toll of the Israeli strikes on the Mawasi refugee camp that day is estimated as much higher. According to Alsharq News, more than 200 civilians were killed. This statement was accompanied by a video showing a number of tents on fire, with large clouds of smoke billowing in the sky. On Facebook, Dr. Mohammed Hilmi alleged that the attacks killed “hundreds.”
The killing of Ayman Salah Khalil Isleh was confirmed by the Israeli military in the joint statement from the IDF Spokesperson and Shin Bet Spokesperson. Originally posted to the military’s Telegram account, the statement was later reposted to Twitter/X by @CGTNEurope.
The statement reads: “The IDF and ISA struck and eliminated the terrorist Rashid Jahjuh, head of Hamas’ General Security Forces. Rashid Jahjuh replaced Sami Oudeh, who was eliminated in July 2024.”
The post went on to say: “Additionally, the terrorist Ayman Atsalih, head of the Khan Yunis sector within Hamas’ General Security Forces, was also eliminated.”
In recent years, Gaza has been governed by Hamas, with leadership both inside and outside of Palestine, made up of a consultative Shura Council and a Politico Bureau. Though designated as a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union, and others, members of Hamas administrative bodies are not considered members of the militant wing of Hamas and do not directly participate in hostilities. However, taking into account his connection to the Internal Security Force (ISF) which is made up of members of the al-Majd internal security force within the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades (IQB), Ayman Salah Isleh is considered a likely militant by Airwars in this assessment.
Several people took to Facebook to grieve and share information about their loved ones who were killed in the alleged Israeli airstrike on the tents sheltering displaced people in al-Mawasi. Ayman Isleh, who was 41 years old at the time, was killed along with his 37-year-old wife, Alaa Mustafa Mohammed Siam (Isleh), and their five children: nine-year-old son Muhammad Ayman Salah Isleh, 13-year-old son Salah Ayman Salah Isleh, 12-year-old son Abdul Rahman Ayman Salah Isleh, five-year-old daughter Salma Ayman Salah Isleh, and three-year-old daughter Rima Ayman Salah Isleh.
Residents of Ma’an and East Khan Yunis shared follow-up posts, writing that Isleh and all his family members were killed before dawn as a result of being “targeted by occupation aircraft.”
Photos of three of Isleh’s children, Muhammad Ayman Salah Isleh, Salah Ayman Salah Isleh, and Abdul Rahman Ayman, were shared by Isleh’s brother online. Photos showed three young boys, all dressed up in suits, while being photographed at home. One of the boys is giving the camera a thumbs-up. A photo of their daughter, Salma Ayman Isleh, was shared by Abu Jasser Isleh, captioned “your uncle’s beloved, flower of the house,” which shows a young girl with brown hair, which has been styled, wearing a pink dress and pink shoes, and is carrying a handbag.
According to Estraa Hajaj Em Sham on Facebook, 26-year-old Nour Nidal Atallah Hamad (Ahmed) and her two children, one or two-year-old daughter Eileen Basil Mahmoud Abu Al-Khair, and her infant son Rakan Basil Mahmoud Abu Al-Khair, were killed in the strike. The Ministry of Health lists, detailed below, recorded Eileen’s age as one when she was killed. As such, Airwars had recorded the same. This will be updated should additional information become available. A video shared by Abd Elrahman shows a grieving man frantically pleading as he holds the lifeless body of Lian.
Nour Nidal Hamad’s husband, Basil Mahmoud Saleh Abu Al-Khair, was injured in the strike, while his brothers, 27-year-old Bilal Mahmoud Saleh Abu Al-Khair, and 34-year-old engineer Saleh Mahmoud Saleh Abu Al-Khair, were killed. Many people took to social media to mourn the loss of the brothers. One widely circulated photo showed the two men, standing side by side, both with trimmed beards and short black hair. They were both wearing button-down shirts and wristwatches and were smiling for the photo.
22-year-old Mahmoud Mohammad Mahmoud Abu Al-Khair was also killed, but it is unclear how Mahmoud was related to Nour, Lian, Rikan, Basil, Bilal, and Saleh.
A young woman, Lubna Bassam Ayesh Al-Najjar, was also killed, dying from wounds incurred as a result of the airstrikes, according to Gaza Post on Facebook. A photo shared shows a young woman smiling and holding up a peace sign with her hand. In the photo, she is wearing a white hijab under a dark-colored hoodie.
User Eslayeh.press noted that Lubna Al-Najjar was a mother of three and is survived by her husband, siblings, and father. A video shared by user Mole Mohammed showed a group of men grieving and praying over her at her funeral. Her body is covered in cloth as she lies on a stretcher. One of her children, Issam Wadi, a young child, is shown in the video crying over his mother. Her older son is shown visibly choking up during the prayer, and is later shown crouching over his mother’s body to pray to her.
Where possible, the names of the victims have been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) lists, which include national ID numbers. Airwars is matching individuals to the first list where their name appeared. In regard to this incident, names are matched to the eighth “Palestinian Ministry of Health List of Fatalities in Gaza”, which was released on March 24, 2025.
Footage shared on Facebook in the aftermath of the strikes showed extensive damage to the area. User Almashhad posted a video showing more than five tents on fire, with smoke still visible hours later. Burned tents, clothes, and belongings were scattered on the ground in piles of ash. In the video, the speaker said, “a carnage took place” as he walked through the destroyed camp. The caption of the video reposted by user Trt Arabj reads, “The bodies of the martyrs were charred inside the tents of the displaced.”
Yehia.younesalmrazqy on Facebook shared a haunting photo of bright white flames engulfing the area after the airstrikes.
A video by Al Jazeera also showed the aftermath of the strike, with personal belongings turned into ash. The speaker in the video said that there is a group of tents in Mawasi Khan Younis area, and at daybreak, the Israeli warplanes allegedly hit five to seven tents that hosted displaced civilians. The attack led to a number of casualties, while the tents were “turned into a pile of ash.” The speaker also added that there were a number of injuries from the missile debris that fell on the ground. He concluded that this was a “great massacre against the displaced people.”
Another circulated photo showed children walking in the camp, with their belongings in ash by their feet. Accompanying a video of the aftermath of the strikes, user alhadath wrote, “Charred food and canned goods lie among the burnt-out tents…displaced people inspect their losses after the bombing.”
The post by Aljazeeramubasher featured the testimony of one of the survivors of the deadly incident, who described the massacre, saying “We were asleep and woke up terrified by the bombing. We were surprised by the fall of several incendiary missiles that devoured the tents and everything inside. We miraculously survived, while a number of martyrs fell.”
He added, “We are ordinary residents of Mawasi, not fighters. We are displaced people who have been living in these tents for more than 10 months. The occupation has always bombarded the surrounding areas with rockets without targeting us. However, this time, they targeted us directly with rockets that burned everything they reached. We do not know what happened to our neighbors. We have an injured person in intensive care and a number of other unnatural injuries. This is a terrifying and very disturbing scene.”
Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the strike to the Israeli military. Although the Israeli military declared the strike that killed Ayman Salah Khalil Isleh, it did not acknowledge the civilian harm resulting from it. Therefore, Airwars has graded the strike status of the incident as “declared”, but the civilian harm status as “fair.”