Rafat Mohammad at-Tanani

Their life

Rafat Mohammad at-Tanani, 39, was a Palestinian father from Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip. On May 13, 2021, he was killed along with his pregnant wife, Rawiye, and their four young children when Israeli warplanes bombed their home without warning during the night-long bombardment of Gaza. The entire family perished as their residential block was destroyed, leaving no survivors. Rafat’s death, along with that of his family, became one of the most harrowing symbols of the heavy civilian toll of the May 2021 escalation, which claimed the lives of 247 Palestinians, including dozens of women and children.

Rafat Mohammad at-Tanani was a 39-year-old resident of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, where he lived with his wife and four children. He was known as a family man, devoted to raising his children—Ismail, 6, Ameer, 5, Adham, 4, and Mohammad, 3—alongside his wife, Rawiye, who at the time was pregnant with their fifth child. On the night of May 13, 2021, their home was struck by an Israeli airstrike that leveled the residential square without prior warning. The entire family was wiped out in an instant. Rafat’s death, together with that of his wife and children, drew widespread condemnation and grief, symbolizing the devastating impact of the assault on Palestinian families. That same night, another family in Khan Younis was killed, underscoring how entire households were destroyed across the Gaza Strip during the bombardments. Rafat’s story, and that of his family, became part of the broader narrative of May 2021—an assault that claimed the lives of 247 Palestinians, including 66 children and 39 women, and left

How they died

Rafat was killed in an Israeli airstrike that struck his home in Beit Hanoun on May 13, 2021.

The cause of Rafat Mohammad at-Tanani’s death was an Israeli aerial bombardment on Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza, on the night of May 13, 2021. His home was directly targeted and destroyed without any warning, killing him, his pregnant wife, and all four of their children. The strike came during one of the most intense nights of the 11-day conflict, in which 36 Palestinians were killed across the Gaza Strip. In Rafat’s case, the airstrike not only claimed individual lives but erased an entire family line, a tragedy that became emblematic of the indiscriminate nature of the bombardments and the disproportionate impact on civilians.

Why we remember them

This record exists so that Rafat Mohammad at-Tanani, and all who are named in this archive, are never reduced to a number.

References & sources