On 19 August 2014, the Israel Defense Forces carried out an airstrike at the home of Mohammed Deif, leader of the Al-Qassam Brigades.

[16] On 19 August 2014,[1] Israel attempted to assassinate Deif in an airstrike on his house in the Sheikh Radwan district of Gaza City.

[17][18] The strike on the family home killed his 27-year old wife (Widad Asfoura)[19] and two of their children, a 3-year-old daughter (Arabic: سارة محمد الضيف, romanized: Sarah Mohammed Al-Deif)[b][20] and 7-month-old son (referred to at the funeral as "Ali Deif" Arabic: علي الضيف),[21] and three other members of the household.

[22] The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights claimed it was the same house previously destroyed in 2012 which reportedly killed multiple members of the Al Dalu family.

[25] Several thousand people attended the funeral of Deif's wife and son in Gaza, angrily demanding revenge against Israel and firing shots into the air.

The bodies of Widad and Ali were taken from the wife’s family home to a mosque in Jabaliya refugee camp for prayers, then laid to rest in the sand of a cemetery.