Sa’id Abu Ghalyoun

Their life

Sa’id Abu Ghalyoun, 30, was killed on May 14, 2021, when the vehicle he was traveling in, north of Gaza City, was targeted in a missile strike by the Israeli air force. His death occurred during one of the deadliest nights of Israel’s May 2021 assault, in which 160 warplanes, artillery, and naval forces launched 450 missiles and shells within 40 minutes, devastating homes, roads, and essential civilian infrastructure across the Gaza Strip. That day alone, 39 Palestinians were killed, including 13 women and 14 children, and more than 200 were injured. Sa’id’s killing formed part of a wider pattern of Israeli airstrikes that wiped out entire families, destroyed dozens of homes, and forced thousands to flee.

Sa’id Abu Ghalyoun, 30, was a Palestinian civilian from Gaza who was killed during one of the heaviest nights of bombardment in the May 2021 escalation. On May 14, 2021, he was traveling in a vehicle north of Gaza City when Israeli warplanes fired a missile directly at it, killing him instantly.

That night became known as one of the most devastating episodes of the war. Israel deployed 160 fighter jets, artillery units, and naval forces in a massive synchronized assault, unleashing 450 missiles and shells in under 40 minutes. The attacks devastated residential areas, agricultural land, and critical civilian infrastructure across the northern Gaza Strip.

Sa’id’s death occurred amid the killing of dozens of other civilians in the same timeframe. Families were wiped out in their homes, including the al-Tanani family in Beit Lahiya and the al-‘Attar family in Beit Lahia. In total, 39 Palestinians were killed that day, including 13 women and 14 children. Thousands of residents were displaced, seeking shelter in

How they died

Sa’id Abu Ghalyoun was killed on May 14, 2021, when an Israeli air-to-surface missile struck the vehicle he was traveling in north of Gaza City during a wave of heavy bombardments.

Sa’id Abu Ghalyoun was killed in a direct missile strike on a vehicle north of Gaza City on May 14, 2021. Israeli warplanes carried out intense bombardments across the Gaza Strip that day, with 150 targets hit in less than an hour. The strikes flattened residential buildings, hit civilian facilities, and destroyed vital infrastructure including electricity and water networks.

His killing was part of a broader campaign that night in which 23 people were killed in northern Gaza alone, among them entire families, including a man, his wife, and their four children; a father and his three daughters (one of them pregnant); and a mother with her three children. The bombardments forced thousands of residents to flee their homes and seek shelter in overcrowded UNRWA schools.

According to human rights investigators, the strikes were indiscriminate and disproportionate, carried out without prior warning, and deliberately targeted civilian-populated areas. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) documented these attacks as grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions amounting to war crimes.

Why we remember them

This record exists so that Sa’id Abu Ghalyoun, and all who are named in this archive, are never reduced to a number.

References & sources