On Tuesday, 18 March 2025, an alleged Israeli airstrike struck the home of the Zahir family in Deir al-Balah Camp, central Gaza Strip, killing at least three civilians, including one woman and at least two children, and destroying the family’s house to rubble.
According to the sources, the victims were 19-year-old Shaza Nabil (Abd al-Hamid) Zahir and her two daughters, 12-year-old Misk Muhammad (Mahmoud) Zahir and Jannat Allah Muhammad Zahir (child, age unavailable), whose relatives said were killed while asleep in their home.
According to the MoH list and the websites “Genocide in Gaza” and Shireen Monitor, which have thousands of names of the victims of the Israeli military, Shaza Zahir was 19 years old at the time of her death. As the age of Shaza is too small to become a mother of a 12-year-old child, Airwars considers her name reconciliation partial until further information comes to light. It is also possible that she was an aunt to the girls.
The names of the victims have also been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) lists, which include national ID numbers. Since October 26, 2023, the MoH has released a number of 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 eighth “Palestinian Ministry of Health List of Fatalities in Gaza”, which was released on March 24, 2025.
Multiple family members, including cousins Waleed and Husain Rafat Daher, confirmed their deaths on social media, mourning them and describing the attack as a “massacre against the family.” Nevin Abdrabbo lamented: “Children whose childhood neither interceded for nor exonerated them… The two sisters, Jannah Allah and Misk Muhammad Zaher, and their mother, Shaza Nabil Zaher, were martyred as a result of the bombing that targeted the city of #Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip yesterday.”
Multiple sources, including Hossam Yousef, Reda Bond, and Yeni Safak on Facebook, shared an image of the two girls who were killed, Misk and Jannat Allah. Misk, wearing a white lace dress and a pendant with two hearts, was showing a victory sign, alongside her sister Jannar Allah, who looked no older than five years of age. Aya N Thahe also shared an image of Shaza, a young woman dressed in black and wearing a black hijab.
According to the website “Genocide in Gaza”, 11-year-old Mona Mohamed Mahmoud Zahir was also among the victims of the strike on the Zaher family’s house. Based on her last and middle names, she must have been a sister of Mona and Jannat Allah.
Local media reported that the Zahir house was one of several homes struck in a wave of airstrikes on more than seven homes across the central Gaza Strip, including those belonging to the Masmah, Mazid, and al-Batran families. Reporting on the strike on those houses, the news agency Safa reported the injuries, but it is not clear from the information whether there were injuries in Zahir’s house.
Images shared online showed the Zahir house destroyed, with heavy debris and collapsed walls consistent with an airstrike.
Where sources identified the belligerent, all the sources attributed the strike to the Israeli military.