A Christian mother and daughter who served displaced families, and a university lecturer and her mother were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting a residential building in Gaza City early Saturday.<\/p>\n
Medical sources said the four women were among five Palestinians killed in the attack that hit the ground floor of the Al-Asala 1 building near Haidar roundabout in the western Rimal neighborhood, in the latest violation of an ongoing ceasefire agreement.<\/p>\n
The women were identified as Maysa Abu Daoud, her daughter Mary Najjar, academic Yasmin al-Boubou and her mother, Halloum al-Boubou.<\/p>\n
Serving displaced families<\/p>\n
Maysa, known as Umm Michel, and Mary, known as Umm Fouad, were Palestinian Christians from Gaza City who devoted their time to helping parishioners and displaced people sheltering at the Holy Family Church, according to Palestine\u2019s Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs.<\/p>\n
The committee\u2019s chairman, Ramzi Khoury, described their deaths as a \u201cpainful loss\u201d for their families, the church and its parishioners.<\/p>\n
Saint Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza mourned the women, as did Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who offered condolences to their relatives and Gaza\u2019s Christian community.<\/p>\n
Their funeral took place Saturday at Saint Porphyrius Church in Gaza City\u2019s Old City, with prayers, hymns and religious readings.<\/p>\n
Mary\u2019s son, 14-year-old Fouad al-Najjar, told Anadolu that the strike hit the building at about 1.30 am (2230GMT).<\/p>\n
\u201cMy grandmother and my mother died. May God have mercy on them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He appealed for an end to the Israeli war, saying people were losing loved ones every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are exhausted by this war and have endured so much,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor almost three years, we have been living through the same destruction, the same grief and the same war.\u201d<\/p>\n
Najjar said Israeli attacks had killed Muslims and Christians alike.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe occupation does not distinguish between a Muslim and a Christian. I have personally lost many Muslims and Christians who were dear to me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Palestinian Lutheran pastor Munther Isaac, who serves in Ramallah and directs the Bethlehem Institute for Peace and Justice, wrote on the US social media company X: \u201cThe genocide continues in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n
Israeli attacks have previously struck Christians and church compounds during Tel Aviv\u2019s genocidal war in the enclave.<\/p>\n
On Oct. 19, 2023, an attack on the Saint Porphyrius Church compound killed at least 18 people. Two months later, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said an Israeli sniper shot dead a woman and her daughter inside the Holy Family parish compound in Gaza.<\/p>\n
An Israeli strike on the Holy Family Catholic Church compound on July 17, 2025, also killed three people and injured others, including parish priest Father Gabriel Romanelli.<\/p>\n
Academic killed<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s victims also included Yasmin al-Boubou, a lecturer in the multimedia department at the University of Palestine\u2019s College of Intermediate Studies in Gaza.<\/p>\n
She previously headed the university\u2019s Multimedia Technology Department. Official university reports from 2019 identified her in that position, overseeing academic and artistic activities for students.<\/p>\n
Her biography on the university\u2019s website listed a bachelor\u2019s degree in management computer information systems from Al-Quds Open University and three master\u2019s degrees in management and information systems, computer science and information technology, and sustainable development, specializing in institution building and human development.<\/p>\n
The biography, covering her qualifications through September 2021, also identified her as a doctoral student in computer science and artificial intelligence at that time.<\/p>\n
Her 2021 master\u2019s thesis at Al-Quds University examined students\u2019 perceptions of Palestinian universities in Gaza and the factors influencing them.<\/p>\n
Palestinian academics and rights advocates mourned her killing.<\/p>\n
Academic Louay Jouda paid tribute on Facebook to Yasmin and her mother, writing that Israel continued to commit \u201cmassacres against innocent people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor chairman Ramy Abdu also mourned Yasmin, while academic Iyad al-Qarra described her as a distinguished scholar.<\/p>\n
Her mother, Halloum, was killed alongside her in the same strike. Verified information about her personal or professional life was not available.<\/p>\n
Yasmin\u2019s death adds to a long list of killed academics and researchers across Gaza during the war.<\/p>\n
In a report issued on Sept. 28, 2026, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said it had documented the deaths of around 194 intellectuals, academics and researchers, alongside more than 830 teachers and education workers.<\/p>\n
\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200bAccording to Palestinian figures, Israel has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians and injured over 175,000 in Gaza since Oct. 8, 2023, while around 90% of the enclave\u2019s infrastructure has been destroyed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Christian mother and daughter who served displaced families, and a university lecturer and her mother were killed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43,180804],"class_list":["post-635358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-sitekeywords"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}