Israeli bombs wipe out entire Gaza family, including four children, during Rafah assault

Israeli forces killed all members of a Palestinian family in an attack on central Rafah on Tuesday evening.

The Abu Qamar family, who were forcibly displaced from their home and seeking shelter in Rafah, were all killed in the bombing, according to local Palestinian media.

Video footage showed the aftermath of the attack in the Yabna camp with the bodies of the family wrapped in white shrouds and taken in the ambulance.

The news was confirmed by Palestinian journalist Alaa Shaath and Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor strategy director Maha Hussaini, who told The New Arab that the death certificates for the family members will be issued in the coming days.

The family consisted of the father, Mohammed Abu Qamar, his wife Iman al-Sayyid Abu al-Hind and their four children, Taleen, Alma, Lana and Karam.

"Where are the Arab leaders, these are kids! What have they done? Let the world see, the Yabna camp is destroyed, Gaza is no longer," a man wailed while holding the shrouded bodies of the children in a video posted following the attack.

مشاهد من المجزرة التي ارتكبها الاحتلال بحق عائلة أبو قمر بعد استهدافه منزلاً بمخيم يبنا وسط رفح pic.twitter.com/I5Jve5ocne

— وكالة سند للأنباء - Snd News Agency (@Snd_pal) April 17, 2024

The New Arab’s sister publication, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported an Israeli assault on the refugee camp with seven people killed and several injured, the majority of them women and children.

Gaza's health ministry said Israel had committed five "massacres" against families in Gaza in the past 24 hours, with 46 people killed and 110 wounded.

The ministry reported in October that over 47 families, consisting of over 500 civilians, have been wiped from the civilian registry.

"There are good reasons to believe that the number could actually be higher," Amnesty International’s secretary general said.

Israel has killed over 33,800 Palestinians in Gaza alone since the start of the war on 7 October, while at least 76,000 Palestinians have been wounded.

Up to 70 percent of all homes in Gaza and as many as 84 percent of homes in the enclave's north have either been fully destroyed or partly damaged since Israel's onslaught began.