A harrowing account reported by The Intercept sheds light on the tragic fate of the Alsayed family in Gaza. After losing their mother in an initial bombing, the American family turned to the White House for help, hoping to protect their injured relatives. Despite shared coordinates meant to ensure their safety, "Israel" bombed the same area again, raising urgent questions about "Israel's" accountability and its systematic targeting of civilians amid its ongoing genocide in Gaza.

'Did you give them the coordinates?? They just hit the house again!'

On the afternoon of October 14, Ayman Alsayed received a life-changing call from his brother Diaa in Gaza City, seven hours ahead of Ayman in the US. Diaa delivered devastating news: their family home in Jabalia had been hit by an Israeli airstrike. Their mother, Zahia, was among those killed. Some family members survived but were trapped in the rubble.

“[Diaa] told me about my brother: ‘He can’t move and he’s wounded,’” Ayman recalled as reported by The Intercept. Desperate to save their injured brother, Ashraf, Diaa pleaded, “Please, please — if you can do anything from America to help the family.”

Ayman felt powerless. “I didn’t know what to do,” he admitted. “We know it’s impossible to find somebody to help from here. But we did our best.”

After exhausting various avenues, Ayman finally connected with a Washington D.C. nonprofit through a friend. The organization had a contact at the White House, and Ayman provided the coordinates for the family home. “We sent this so they can pass it to the Israelis to let the ambulance take the people,” Ayman explained.

Meanwhile, in Gaza, Diaa stayed in touch with the stranded family members as daylight approached. Some relatives, including children, had been bleeding for hours. By 7:30 am, a local doctor managed to rescue the injured children, promising to return for the adults.

But within 15 minutes, Diaa received devastating news: The doctor and most of the children had been killed, and the house had been bombed again. Only one brother and a nephew survived the second strike.

The tragedy quickly reached Ayman and his wife Rachel in the US. In a group chat with the nonprofit official who had passed their family’s coordinates to the White House, Rachel wrote, “Did you give them the coordinates?? They just hit the house again."

The name of Hind Rajab

Efforts to protect civilians in Gaza are often met with tragedy, as attempts to ensure safe passage for aid workers and civilians routinely result in further Israeli attacks.

"Israel" has repeatedly targeted emergency and aid workers, even after their locations were shared with the military in requests for safe passage. This constant pattern highlights the harsh reality for Palestinians, who face the cruel reminder that no safety exists for them.

The name of Hind Rajab, a 6-year-old girl, became a symbol of global opposition to the war after a recording of her desperate pleas for help went viral. Despite receiving Israeli approval, the Red Crescent ambulance that came to her rescue was bombed as it reached her.

In April, an airstrike also killed seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen, despite the group’s coordination with the Israeli military.

While securing safe passage is a common practice in wartime, it has proven to be a dangerous gamble in "Israel’s" aggression against Gaza. In May, Human Rights Watch reported that the World Central Kitchen attack was not an isolated incident but part of at least eight similar strikes where aid groups and the UN had provided GPS coordinates to Israeli authorities, only to be attacked without warning.

'Israel attacked the house again using the coordinates we gave them'

For Ayman Alsayed, who was in the US, the aftermath of his efforts to save his family has left him with overwhelming guilt. “It’s difficult to express how I felt,” Ayman said. “This is what I believe: that I hurt my family, not helped them, by giving all this information to the embassy who passed the information to the Israelis. And instead of bringing safe passage for the ambulance to come, they attacked the house again using the coordinates we gave them.”

Months before the October attack that nearly wiped out the rest of his family, Diaa Alsayed had already faced immense loss. His wife and six of his children were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Jabalia.

On the night of October 14, Diaa, who was in Gaza City with his only surviving child, his daughter Tala, received a call around 9 pm from his sister-in-law, Sumaya.

“‘Help me, help me!’” she cried, Diaa recalled. “‘Call an ambulance! Call somebody! Two of my children have been martyred.’” Sumaya informed him that his mother had also been killed and that the remaining family members urgently needed help.

At that time, the Israeli military had been conducting an ongoing siege of northern Gaza for about 10 days, particularly devastating the Jabalia refugee camp. UN officials had already warned of dire conditions, with tens of thousands of people cut off from aid and many civilians killed or wounded. The capacity of hospitals and emergency services had been severely impacted, making access to care even more difficult.

“I tried calling for help, but the ambulance service said it was out of their hands,” Diaa said. “They couldn’t enter the area because it was too dangerous; the ambulances were being targeted.”

In an audio recording from that night, Sumaya, Diaa, and Ayman Alsayed’s sister-in-law pleaded for help from emergency services. She explained that she and the other survivors couldn’t escape the house and no one had been able to reach them.

“Be careful, the army is not far from you,” Fares Afana, the emergency worker, told her. “Until now, we cannot reach you. And this is — I swear to God — wrecking our hearts.”

Not an isolated story 

According to Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestine Red Crescent Society, the Alsayed family's story is one of many. “Unfortunately the story of this family is among dozens of stories,” she told The Intercept, adding that even when access had been coordinated for emergency workers, ambulances were still targeted despite the coordination.

Meanwhile, Diaa was still desperately searching for ways to save his family. He turned to journalists for help.

“I wanted to draw attention to the unfolding tragedy and enable coordination with organizations like the Red Cross or emergency services," he said. Then, Diaa described how his relatives were either killed or injured, and no ambulances were able to reach the survivors.

'I helped kill my family by paying taxes'

In the US, Ayman Alsayed and his wife Rachel were desperately trying to find a solution. They realized that getting an ambulance to their family in Jabalia would require Israeli approval. After contacting the Red Crescent, they were told what Diaa had already learned: the ambulances couldn’t reach the area due to the Israeli military.

Next, as American citizens, Ayman and Rachel reached out to the US Embassy in occupied al-Quds, but it was already nighttime. The only available office was the emergency duty desk, which likely had no direct communication with the Israeli military.

With time running out, Ayman and Rachel reached out to friends, hoping someone could assist. This led them to Sean Carroll, the director of the nonprofit Anera, which provides food and medical aid in Gaza. Carroll quickly contacted a White House associate, who responded right away.

“They were asking for coordinates,” Carroll told The Intercept. Working with the Alsayed family and his team on the ground, Carroll provided the necessary information to a National Security Council (NSC) official. “We tried to provide coordinates, but also a description of where the house was. So the NSC passed those on.”

Carroll also reached out to the Israeli military’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), responsible for managing Palestinian civilian life, including emergency and medical logistics. Though he did not receive an immediate response, he was not overly concerned, given that the White House was involved.

“I wasn’t too worried about my communication with COGAT,” he said, “because I knew that the National Security Council and the embassy were in touch with them.”

A spokesperson for the National Security Council, quoted by The Intercept, said that the White House was informed about the initial attack and that various agencies, including the State Department, were involved in efforts to assist.

“The Administration also relayed the information received from contacts of the family to the Israeli authorities and UN, for further assistance,” the spokesperson said, though they did not specify which Israeli government department or UN office received the details.

Carroll explained that his White House contact informed him that the US Embassy in al-Quds had passed the information to the Israeli Southern Command, the military division responsible for the Gaza Strip.

Ayman Alsayed expressed doubt that the White House’s involvement would benefit his family, given the Biden administration’s consistent support for "Israel". “But I wanted to do something, at least,” he said. “I just wanted to do anything I can.”

By the time the White House got involved, several hours had passed since the initial Israeli attack. In Gaza, Diaa Alsayed was still in contact with his relatives trapped under the rubble.

“All night long, I was in contact with them, and there was nothing but fear, screaming, and crying,” Diaa recalled. “My brother’s wife Sumaya kept saying, ‘My children were martyred before my eyes, and my husband is injured.’”

As dawn neared, Diaa reached out to Ahmed al-Najjar, a doctor and family friend. With his injured relatives losing blood, Diaa hoped al-Najjar could provide help. “He called to tell me that he was preparing to evacuate the wounded and the children from the house to a safer location,” Diaa told The Intercept.

'They shot them, they chased them'

Around 7:30 am, Al-Najjar informed Diaa that he would first evacuate the injured children and then return for the adults. This offered a brief moment of hope after a long and agonizing night, but it was short-lived.

“When I called him” — the doctor — “about 15 minutes later to check on them, a stranger answered the phone and told me that Dr. Al-Najjar had been martyred,” Diaa recalled. “When I asked how it had happened, he told me that the occupation army had targeted Dr. Al-Najjar and the children he was rescuing as they tried to leave the area.”

Ayman and Diaa Alsayed’s 8-year-old nephew, Mohammed, was among the children with the doctor. Ayman said his nephew later described seeing a drone follow the group and witnessing the attack that killed Al-Najjar and the other children, though he managed to escape.

“They shot them, they chased them,” Ayman Alsayed said Mohammed told him. The child had fallen behind when the attack began, and a neighbor pulled him into their house for safety. “Somebody opened the door, let him inside the house. And this is what helped him to survive.”

Shocked by the news about the children, Diaa tried calling Sumaya but instead heard Ashraf, her husband and Diaa's brother. The house had been hit again by Israeli airstrikes, and Sumaya had been killed.

When emergency workers finally reached the Alsayed home in Jabalia, they found the bodies of the doctor and the children in the street, according to Karim al-Hassani, one of the first responders. A video taken by the rescuers showed several members of the Alsayed family, including the youngest, 1-and-a-half-year-old Amal, with blood trickling down her head.

The rescuers then proceeded to the Alsayed home. “We went inside and found two injured people living and bleeding,” al-Hassani told The Intercept. It was Ashraf and another Alsayed brother, Hani. However, Hani’s injuries were too severe. “When we arrived at the hospital, he was dead.”

By morning, around 11 hours after the first airstrike, al-Najjar and 11 members of the Alsayed family had been killed, including six children. The only survivors were Ashraf Alsayed, who is now paralyzed from the injuries, and Mohammed, his only surviving child.

'He watched his siblings turn into pieces, and he was left traumatized' 

Ashraf, the brother who survived the attack, and his son Mohammed are currently in a hospital in northern Gaza. Ayman and Diaa said Ashraf is in constant pain. His recovery is hampered by the state of Gaza’s health care system, including Israeli restrictions on medicine and supplies.

“There’s no real medical care here,” Diaa said from Gaza City. “He is utterly hopeless and devastated.” 

Diaa also worries for his young nephew, Mohammed. “He watched his siblings turn into pieces, and he was left traumatized,” Diaa said. “He cannot sleep. He wakes up at night, screaming for his mother, father, and siblings.”

As he cares for his brother and nephew, Diaa is also trying to get better medical help for his daughter Tala — struggling herself to recover from severe burn injuries from the December airstrike that killed Diaa’s wife and other children. The only hope for his injured daughter and brother, Diaa said, would be a medical evacuation, something that has become nearly impossible due to Israeli restrictions.

“We live without safety, without shelter, without hope. Every night, I search for a corner where my daughter and I can sleep,” Diaa said. “This war is not just destroying buildings; it is tearing apart lives. It has taken everything from us — our families, our homes, our dignity.”

“There are no words to capture the agony of what we are enduring.” 

Thousands of miles away, in the US, Ayman Alsayed must rely on spotty connectivity for calls with his surviving family. He worries about their safety but also their future, with the Israeli siege of northern Gaza bringing new horrors every day. 

The Biden administration’s continuing support for "Israel", despite mounting charges of what Amnesty International declared to be a genocide, only adds to Ayman’s stress. The distance from his family makes the pain more visceral given where he lives.

“I helped kill my family by paying taxes,” he said. “This breaks my heart.”