The Bombing That Wiped Out Families in Deir Al Balah

The Socialist Struggle Movement stands in solidarity and bows its head in memory of all the victims of ordinary people on both sides of the fence in the bloody events. We will continue to make an uncompromising voice demanding an immediate halt to the bombings and the revenge campaign of the Netanyahu–Ben Gvir–Gantz government, which is wreaking destruction and a bloodbath of unprecedented proportions, designed above all to protect the root causes of the current crisis — a reality of siege and extreme national oppression of millions of Palestinians under the rule of Israeli capital.

Among the approximately 400 residents killed in bombings in the Gaza Strip on Sunday (22 October), some 23 members of the family of Palestinian journalist Ahmed al-Na’ouq from Deir al-Balah were killed in one fell swoop, apparently in the early hours of the morning. Ahmed lost his father, two brothers, three of his sisters, and at least 15 of his nieces and nephews, who were not yet 15 years old (see Ahmed’s post on Twitter/X after the bombing).

In 2018, in the midst of the protests on the Gaza border, Ahmed spoke to us against the backdrop of bereavement, intolerable conditions under the aggression of the blockade, and the demonstrations, which have been met with heavy military repression, including the widespread killing of unarmed demonstrators. “We Palestinians in Gaza, the more they kill us, the more the anger increases. If, for example, the Israeli army kills my brother, I won’t stay in fear at home. And the Israeli army killed my brother in the last war”, he recalled at the time how during the 2014 Gaza offensive, at the age of 20, he lost his older brother and friends. He lost his mother in 2020 after the Israeli government refused to allow her access to medical care outside Gaza.

Our hearts revolt in solidarity with Ahmed for the further horror that has now befallen him in the bombings, and with the masses of bereaved families at this difficult time.

Entire families were buried under the rubble in Deir al Balah, located in the central Gaza Strip, far south of the Gaza River, that is, in an area where residents of northern Gaza were initially demanded under the threat of the bombing to flee for their lives. Field coverage by an Al Jazeera media team shows the ruings of one of the bombed buildings — a four-storey building in the Al-Birkeh neighborhood, where dozes of people from the Al-Kurd family were staying, and neighbours and residents trying to rescue survivors and recover the dead themselves among the rubble, without proper equipment. Search and rescue teams in Gaza are collapsing under the load, and according to reported estimates, over a thousand people are still buried under the rubble.

Read Ahmed’s words in an interview we conducted with him on the Socialist Struggle website five years ago, when he signed off with an appeal to young Israelis: “On both sides there are victims. Our situation in Gaza is simply catastrophic”, and he called for a struggle, “Israelis my age need to open their eyes more. What the Israeli government is doing is very bad. They should oppose it... If they make demands [on this issue] to the Israeli government, I think we have a chance for the future. We all need to stand up against oppression and injustice and demand a normal life, a life that guarantees equality for all”. (Read the full interview here, May 2018)