On Monday, October 9th 2023, at least one young man, a civilian named Khaled Ramez Abu Kwaik, was trapped under rubble for at least three days when the Al-Dahdouh building near Al-Azhar University in Gaza City collapsed in Tal al-Hawa. On October 11th 2023, relatives reported his death on social media. The precise details of the incident and Khaled’s death are not yet known – and no sources identified the possible perpetrator.

Family members and friends identified the victim on social media in posts that expressed uncertainty about Khaled’s condition. Two days after the incident took place Facebook user Ahmad Rami Kahil wrote an urgent appeal to philanthropists to garner their support to help save Khaled who, he suggested, may still have been alive beneath the rubble. In a photo Khaled is depicted on the seafront as a smiling young man, wearing a white and grey hoodie. The comment read ‘The young man Khaled Ramez Abu Kwaik has been under the rubble since Monday in Al-Dahdouh Building, next to Al-Azhar University, Faculty of Medicine, third floor, and we do not know whether he was martyred or living under the rubble. We want the Civil Defense to take him out (his mother’s situation is very difficult, and she is waiting for someone to reassure her about him)’.

In a Facebook post, user Saqir Rajab also expressed uncertainty about his friend’s condition. He wrote, “Your prayers for the beloved, childhood friend Khaled Ramez Abu Kwaik. May God return him to his family and loved ones. He is now under rubble as a result of the targeting of the Tal al-Hawa towers the day before yesterday, and until this moment his fate is not known and it is difficult to reach him.”

Family members and friends later expressed their grief and heartache on social media, in posts that confirmed Khaled’s death. Friend Abu Aleid Khwiter shared a photo of Khaled smiling toward the camera with food in one hand. The image had a comment that read, “The martyrdom of the young man and good neighbor Khaled Ramez Abu Kwaik. May God have mercy on you, beloved. God is sufficient for me and He is the best disposer of affairs.”

Khaled’s cousin, Mohammed, shared a photo of Khaled in grey jeans and a blue shirt sitting on a wooden bench outside a blue beach hut on the seaside. The comment read “We belong to Allah and to Him we shall return The martyrdom of my beloved and dear cousin/Khaled Ramez Abu Kwaik … May God have mercy on your soul and accept you with the martyrs and friends, O Lord, may God have mercy on you.”

The sources did not explicitly identify the belligerent, so Airwars has graded both strike status and civilian harm status as contested.

The local time of the incident is unknown.