Muhammad Nabil al-‘Aidy

Muhammad Nabil al-'Aidy, a 37-year-old father of four from the neighborhood of al-Juneinah in Rafah, described losing three of his children and many relatives when Israel bombed his home on 23 October 2023: 

We lived in a three-story building with six apartments. My brothers and their families lived in the other apartments.  

On Monday, 23 October 2023, at around 1:30 P.M., I took my son Ahmad (15) to get his hair cut at a barbershop about 150 meters from our house. Everyone is shaving their sons because there isn’t enough water for washing. Suddenly I heard a very loud bombing. At first, even though it was so strong, I thought it was far away. But then I saw a lot of dust and smoke billowing around the house and couldn’t see clearly what was going on there. I quickly ran home and found the building completely destroyed. There was nothing left standing.  

I lost three of my children: Rimas (16), Adam (10) and Rinad (9). My wife Asmaa (36) has moderate injuries and is still in hospital. I also lost dozens of people from my extended family, many of them young children, women and babies. My mother was badly injured. There are still people under the rubble. We have no way of knowing if any of them are alive.  

I’m still in total shock. I can’t grasp what happened and can’t process it. A three-story building gone in seconds. Since midday yesterday, I’ve been looking for my other relatives under the rubble. Of course, I don’t know who is still alive and who was killed. I’m praying to find survivors. The grief is too much to bear. We can’t take any more people killed, family members or anyone else. 

The bombing killed 49 people, at least 20 of them minors, and injured 11. For their names, see the testimony of Muhammad's cousin, Mahmoud Nafez al-’Aidy.

Read the testimony of 'Amer Dabur, who family was sheltering in the al-'Aidy building