The charred shell of the Al-Masri family home in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City was still smoldering on Tuesday afternoon, hours after the Israel military bombed it, killing Firas and Salsabeel al-Masri and their four children—Faryal, Salma, Amira and Naim—as they slept.
The airstrike came without warning in the middle of the night, destroying the upper floor of the simple two-story structure and setting it ablaze. “We were asleep in the middle of the night, at around 2 a.m. or so, when we heard a huge explosion,” Abu Youssef Al-Masri, the children’s grandfather, told Drop Site as he stood in front of the partially collapsed home. “We realized the house had been struck. The house collapsed and caught fire.”
The fire spared nothing inside, family belongings burnt to ash lay among broken cinder blocks, the walls that remained standing blackened with soot.
“The house burned completely. It was my brother’s home—he, his wife, and their four children. Burned until it was charred. My brother’s entire family has been erased,” Mohammed Al-Masri, the brother of Firas, said. “They burned before our eyes and we couldn’t do anything.” He spoke standing at the graveyard where the family of six were buried on Tuesday afternoon.