On November 2, 2023, two children, 1-year-old Qusay Mohammad Hamza Abu Hilal and 6-year-old Hamza Mohammed Hamza Abu Hilal, were reportedly killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip. According to a Twitter post by @NourNaim88, the children were living in Turkey and were visiting Gaza with their mother, Areej, when the incident occurred. Areej survived the strike but none of the local sources clarified whether she was injured in the strike or not.

According to @GazaMartyrs, two days before Qusay and Hamza were killed, Hamza asked his mother Areej ‘If I am martyred, where will I go?’ and Areej replied, ‘You will be a bird in paradise.’ He asked me again: ‘And what about Qusay?’ I answered: ‘Likewise, a bird in paradise.’ The tweet from @GazaMartyrs also included a slideshow of images and videos of Qusay and Hamza in their daily life, painting, playing with toys, hugging each other, always with smiles.

No specific details about the exact location or time of the strike have been provided.

Multiple sources included the same details about Qusay and Hamza as were published by @GazaMartyrs without additional information. However, Hamza and Qusay’s names have been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of fatalities in Gaza and Shireen Monitor, which both explicitly attribute the deaths of those listed to Israeli forces. Therefore, this incident has been graded as a “likely” Israeli strike.

Both the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of fatalities in Gaza and Shireen Monitor included the full name of both boys provided by the sources along with the surname Al Hilal, which has been added to references within the assessments.