The Israeli army wiped out the family of Hamas military commander Mohammed Mahmoud Shabana from Gaza's civil registry after an airstrike killed his wife and five children in a displacement camp in southern Gaza.
The strike, which hit a tent sheltering displaced civilians in the al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis on Friday, killed Shabana's wife, known as Umm Anas, along with their four daughters—Taqwa, Yaqeen, Ihsan and Iman—and their youngest son, Ezz El-Din.
The attack came months after Shabana himself, also known as Abu Anas, and three of his sons were killed in separate Israeli strikes during the war. Hamas announced his death in May 2025, identifying him as the commander of the Rafah Brigade in its armed wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
With the deaths of his wife and remaining children, the Shabana family has been completely wiped from Gaza's civil registry, one of thousands of Palestinian families to have suffered the same fate since Israel launched its genocidal war in October 2023.
Dreams buried beneath the rubble
Beyond Shabana's role within Hamas, those who knew the family said the four sisters had built lives around education and hopes of serving their community.
According to relatives and neighbours, the sisters were university students studying scientific disciplines, with some aspiring to become doctors.
"They always believed studying medicine was a humanitarian mission before it was a profession," Nesma Abu Hein, a longtime friend of Taqwa Shabana, told The New Arab .
"Taqwa always talked about treating the wounded in Gaza . We used to speak about graduation and the future, but the war took away all those dreams," she said.
Neighbours described the sisters as academically outstanding and devoted to their studies.
"They were known for their good character and excellence," Abu Ahmed, a neighbour in Khan Younis, told TNA .
"When the family moved to al-Mawasi, everyone believed they had reached a safer place, but death followed them there," he said.
Another neighbour, Um Mohammed, told TNA that the four sisters had planned to resume their university education once the war ended.
"They hoped to help treat the wounded, but they became victims themselves," she said.
Civilian toll and legal concerns
Repeatedly, relatives of Palestinian faction leaders have also been killed during Israel's genocidal war .
Israel claims its military operations are aimed at dismantling Hamas's military capabilities and targeting the group's leadership, while maintaining that it does not deliberately target civilians despite the mountains of evidence to the contrary.
Palestinian and international human rights organisations have documented numerous airstrikes that killed entire families in homes, shelters and displacement camps, calling for independent investigations into the incidents.
Mustafa Ibrahim, a Gaza-based political analyst, told TNA that the repeated deaths of leaders' family members have raised questions among Palestinians about Israeli military objectives.
"If we look at the course of the genocidal war, we find that the families of a number of leaders lost wives, children and relatives, creating a widespread impression among Palestinians that the targeting was no longer limited to the leaders themselves," Ibrahim told TNA .
"Any targeting of civilians, regardless of their relationship to any party, remains subject to international humanitarian law, which requires the protection of civilians and prohibits attacks against them," he added.
Thousands of families erased
The Shabana family's fate reflects a broader pattern of devastating losses among Palestinian families during the war.
According to the government media office in Gaza and reports by al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights, more than 2,700 Palestinian families have been completely erased from the civil registry after all of their members were killed by the Israeli army.
"More than 6,020 other families have been left with only one surviving member," according to the government media office.
Human rights organisations said the figures illustrate the unprecedented human cost of the conflict and have called for independent investigations into attacks that wiped out entire families, as well as accountability for any violations of international humanitarian law.
The deaths of the Shabana family drew widespread attention on Palestinian social media, with journalists, academics and activists sharing photographs of the four sisters as a symbol of the losses suffered by Gaza's younger generation.
Rami Abdu, chairman of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, wrote on the social media platform Facebook that members of the family were buried in a single grave because their remains could not be separated.
Since October 2023, the Israeli army has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 173,000 others.
International calls for a ceasefire, civilian protection and expanded humanitarian access have continued, but no agreement has yet been reached to end Israel's genocidal war .