Ibrahim Abu Shaaban
Six-year-old killed with ten members of his family when their truck was attacked a week into the ceasefire · c. 2019–2025 · al-Zeitoun, Gaza City
Ibrahim Ihab Abu Shaaban, six, was one of eleven members of the Abu Shaaban family — seven of them children — killed around 3 p.m. on October 17, 2025, when Israeli forces attacked the pickup truck carrying the family through Gaza City's al-Zeitoun neighborhood, one week after the ceasefire took effect; the Israeli military told the BBC the vehicle had crossed the 'yellow line' and troops 'opened fire to remove the threat.'
The Abu Shaabans were going home to look at their house. A week after the October 10, 2025 ceasefire took effect, eleven members of the family — parents, children, an aunt and uncle, cousins — crowded into a Peugeot pickup to drive back to al-Zeitoun and inspect their home. Around 3 p.m. on Friday, October 17, as the truck passed the Kuwaiti Roundabout on Salah al-Din Street, southeast of Gaza City, it came under fire; Airwars and Gaza’s civil defense reported an Israeli tank attack, while the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights reported warplanes. A twelfth family member escaped and reported what had happened.
The dead, named by the Alsiasi news site and matched by Airwars to the health ministry’s fatalities list, were Ihab Abu Shaaban, 38, and his wife Randa, 36; their children Nasser, 12, Jumana, 10, Ibrahim, 6, and Muhammad, 5; Ihab’s sister Samar and her husband Sufian Shaaban, 43; and their children Karam, 10, Anas, 8, and Nasma, 12. Two of the children’s bodies were initially missing from the scene. The bodies were brought to the Baptist (al-Ahli) Hospital in al-Zeitoun.
Asked by the BBC, the Israeli military said a “suspicious vehicle was identified crossing the yellow line” — the line behind which its forces had withdrawn under the ceasefire — and approaching its troops; after warning shots, “troops opened fire to remove the threat, in accordance with the agreement.” Airwars accordingly graded the strike “declared.” The statement did not address the seven children in the truck; Hamas called the killing a major violation of the ceasefire.
Sources
Open questions
The Israeli military acknowledged firing on the family's vehicle, telling the BBC it had crossed the 'yellow line' and continued to approach troops, who 'opened fire to remove the threat, in accordance with the agreement.' It did not address the killing of the seven children. No further accountability is known.