Airwars assessment
Early in the morning of November 2nd 2023, five civilians, including two children, one of them 5-year-old Hala Khalil Fayez Barakat and her mother Rudiynah, were killed and dozens of others were injured while sheltering at the Abu Assi school which is affiliated with the United Nation Palestinian relief agency, UNRWA, after reports of Israeli shelling.
Wafa News reported that the strikes of the Abu Assi school resulted in the “death of five citizens and the wounding of others with various injuries”. A post from Megaphone media platform put the number of injuries at “dozens”.
Family members of Hala and Rudiynah posted about the incident on Facebook.
Mona Barakat, who identified Rudiynah as her daughter-in-law, said: “My last talk to you was a few days before the war. We will never speak again. It is as if goodbye were the end…Rest my dear, from the sound of the bombardment. Rest from your pain for your country. Rest, my child, Hala.” She also claimed that “there is no safety anywhere, not even in schools.” Mona shared a video compilation of pictures of her granddaughter from before the incident.
Abu Tamer Barakat, Hala’s grandfather also shared the same video and expressed his grief at the death of his granddaughter and daughter in law.
One woman told CNN: “The school was shelled and we started screaming…It was an absolute horror.”
A video posted by Mohammed Lubbad shows a grieving father presenting his dead baby to the world. The words which accompanied the post called the incident “a cruel night and a bloody morning for Gaza.”
Another video posted by Halem Mohamed showed another grieving father, likely the father of Hala, crouched over the body of his child wrapped in a blanket. The caption reported that both his wife and daughter were killed in the alleged strike on the UNRWA school.
Multiple sources posted a video from journalist Ahmed Hijaza on social media showing projectiles falling from the sky into a schoolyard while emitting a white smoke. Multiple sources described the attack as having been carried out with white phosphorous.
Kamal Alamoudi shared an Al Jazeera – Egypt video on Facebook that showed women and children running out of a school courtyard, the air full of white smoke. Alamoudi’s post was captioned “Abu Assi School, where I studied for 6 years in primary school.”
The Abu Assi school which was struck in this incident was a shelter for a number of displaced people at the time. Some sources reported that the strike hit the “vicinity” of the Abu Assi school.
Where sources identified a belligerent, all sources attributed the strike to Israeli forces.
The incident occured in the morning.
The victims were named as:
Family members (2)
Summary
Sources (26) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (14) [ collapse]
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