An Israeli airstrike on an apartment block in the al-Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City early on Wednesday killed a woman, Reem Asaad Awad, 33, wounded two other people and set the family's flat on fire, hospital officials said, in reporting carried by Al Jazeera. Awad's young daughter, Maryam Ahmed Ghanem, was rescued from the burning apartment and is being treated at al-Shifa Hospital for second- and third-degree burns. Against that documented fact stands Israel's claim that it targeted a member of Hamas — a claim for which no evidence has been made public.
What happened in al-Rimal?
Al Jazeera's correspondent Ibrahim al-Khalili, reporting from Gaza City, said the strike hit at about 4am local time (01:00 GMT) on Wednesday. A source at al-Shifa Hospital, quoted by the Turkish state news agency Anadolu and reported by Al Jazeera, named the woman killed as Reem Asaad Awad, 33, and said the strike caused extensive destruction to the targeted apartment and to nearby buildings. A large fire broke out inside the flat after the attack, and Awad's daughter was rescued from it, Al Jazeera reported.
What is known about the child?
Reports differ on Maryam's age: Roya News described her as two-and-a-half years old, and other coverage has put her age at between two and four. What the accounts agree on is the scene of the rescue and the severity of her injuries. Roya News reported that field journalist Ali al-Jaafrawi documented the rescue and described how thick smoke and intense flames initially prevented rescuers from reaching the toddler, who was on a bed inside the burning flat; she is receiving treatment for burn injuries and facial trauma. Her grandfather told Middle East Eye that she suffered second- and third-degree burns and that her mother was killed in the fire. He added that Maryam's father was killed at the beginning of Israel's war on Gaza — which means the strike that killed her mother has left her an orphan.
Watch: the rescue footage, filmed by the journalist who pulled her out (Roya News)
What does Israel claim about the strike?
Israel says it is investigating the strike and claims it targeted a member of Hamas, Al Jazeera reported. No evidence for that claim has been made public in the reporting on this strike, and the Israeli military has not, in the accounts published so far, identified the person it says was targeted or explained the circumstances in which a residential flat was hit at 4am. The identity of any intended target, and whether one was present in the building, remain exactly that: an Israeli claim, which War Info Hub has not been able to verify independently — set against a documented record of a mother dead and her toddler in a burns unit.
Why does one strike matter a year into a ceasefire?
The al-Rimal strike is one entry in a toll that has kept rising since the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect in October 2025. Al Jazeera, citing Gaza's health authorities, reported that 1,501 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire was agreed. Talks on the second phase of the US plan — which includes the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the disarmament of Hamas — have stalled, and reconstruction of the territory has not begun. For the family in al-Rimal, those abstractions resolve into a single documented fact: a mother killed in the fire in her own flat, a small child in a burns unit, and a grandfather describing to reporters how she came to be there.
The account of the strike, the naming of the woman killed and the Israeli military's position are as reported by Al Jazeera from hospital officials and its correspondent in Gaza City; the details of the child's injuries and family are as given by her grandfather to Middle East Eye and by Roya News. The Israeli claim about the strike's target is published as the claim Israel stated, and is not independently verified.
