An airstrike on the ground floor of a residential building in Gaza City’s Al-Rimal neighborhood killed four women and a young man and injured many others.
The attack targeted the Al-Asala 1 building near Haydar Junction. The women killed were identified as Maysa Khidr Ibrahim Abu Dawud, her daughter Mari Hafiz Michel Najjar, Palestinian academic Yasemin Hamis al-Bubu and her mother, Halum al-Bubu.
Mother and daughter Maysa and Mari were helping members of the congregation and displaced people at a shelter affiliated with the Holy Family Church in Gaza City. Maysa was known as “Abu Michel’s mother,” while Mari was known as “Abu Fuad’s mother.”
Funeral held for mother and daughter in Gaza
The bodies of Maysa and Mari were taken from St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza’s Old City. The ceremony included funeral prayers, supplications, hymns and religious recitations.
Fourteen-year-old Fuad Samir Fuad Najjar, Mari’s son and Maysa’s grandson, said the attack took place at around 1:30 a.m. Najjar, who said he had lost his mother and grandmother, called for the war to end.
Najjar said they had lived with destruction, grief and attacks for nearly three years, adding that Muslims and Christians in Gaza were being targeted together.
Yasemin al-Bubu’s academic work
Yasemin Hamis Mohammed al-Bubu taught in the Multimedia Department of the Faculty of Intermediate Studies at Palestine University in Gaza. Al-Bubu had previously served as head of the university’s Multimedia Technologies Department.
Al-Bubu earned her undergraduate degree in management and computer information systems from Al-Quds Open University. She also held three master’s degrees in management and information systems, computer science and information technology, and sustainable development.
According to the university’s biographical information, al-Bubu was pursuing a doctorate in computer science and artificial intelligence as of September 2021. In her master’s thesis submitted to Al-Quds University in 2021, she examined students’ perceptions of Palestinian universities in Gaza and the factors influencing those perceptions.
Al-Bubu’s mother, Halum, was also killed in the same attack. Academics and Palestinian rights advocates issued condolences following the deaths of the mother and daughter.
Churches in Gaza also affected by attacks
Christians and churches in Gaza have previously been targeted in attacks. At least 18 people were killed in an attack on the compound of St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church on October 19, 2023.
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said that Nahida and her daughter Samar were killed by an Israeli sniper at the compound of the Holy Family Church on December 16, 2023. An attack on the compound of the Holy Family Catholic Church in July 2025 killed three people and injured others, including the church’s priest, Gabriel Romanelli.
Academic losses in Gaza
A September 28, 2026 report by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said that approximately 194 thinkers, academics and researchers had been killed in Gaza, based on data through July. The report said that more than 830 teachers and other education-sector employees had also been killed.
According to Palestinian data, more than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 175,000 injured in Gaza since October 8, 2023. The same data says that approximately 90 percent of the infrastructure in the area has been damaged.
