Airwars assessment
On August 8th, 2024, at around 3pm, at least 12 members of the Mahani family were killed and dozens of others were wounded in an alleged Israeli strike on the Al-Zahraa School, located in the Al-Daraj neighbourhood, east of Gaza City.
The victims included Muhammad Muslim Mahani (Abu Ali), Muhammad Muslim Mahani’s daughter* (name unknown), Abdul Qader Yousef Mahani, Fatima Yousef Mahani, and Alaa Ayman Mahani. The siblings Jana Abdul Rahim Mahani*, Juwayriya Abdul Rahim Mahani*, Taqi Abdul Rahim Mahani*, Naqa Abdul Rahim Mahani*, and Muhammad Abdul Rahim Mahani* were also killed. Additionally, Dima Muhammad Madhat Mahani and Amer Muhammad Madhat Mahani, siblings as well, were killed in the strike. The mother of Jana, Juwayriya, Taqi, Naqa, and Muhammad was also killed in the same strike – it is unclear if she is one of the women already included in the lists of the dead.
Although the ages of the victims have not been officially reported, photographic and audiovisual materials circulating widely on social media indicate that some of them were children and young adults.
In response to the incident, there was an outpouring of grief online, with numerous posts expressing condolences and deep sorrow, particularly for Abdul Rahim Muslim Mahani, who lost all his children – his four daughters and his only son (Muhammad) – and wife, brother (Muhammad Muslim Mahani) and niece (Muhammad Muslim Mahani’s daughter), and for Muhammad Madhat Mahani, who lost two of his children – the “bride” Dima and his eldest son Amer.
Rashad Ragab posted a memorial for the Mahani family on Facebook, writing that “I grew up in the arms of this family, and spent the best times of my life with them. A short while ago, the young men told me that they had all left. It was as if I had lost a piece of my heart. They could only find the remains.” Gehan Ali also posted a memorial for Muhammad Muslim Mahani Abu Ali, along with an image of Muhammad playing a drum while wearing a suit and another of Muhammad in a vest holding prayer beads.
A video posted by Palestine TV shows a young man mourning over the body of his mother who was killed in this attack.
Many of these condolence posts highlight the challenging conditions the Mahani family had endured in recent months. They had already lost their home in a previous incident in the Shuja’iyya neighbourhood and had been displaced to Al-Zahraa School, which was serving as a shelter for internally displaced people.
Images of the recovered bodies, including the body of at least one young child, covered in white sheets with handwritten names, were shared on social media by family and friends.
Mondoweiss spoke with a member of the Mahani family, 44-year-old Akram Mahani who explained that the Manadi family had been displaced to the school after Israeli forces invaded the Shuja’iyya area in June, during which they bombed the Mahani family and killed two of his sons. Akram Mahani told Mondoweiss “All of my cousins were martyred in this bombing. None of them remained. An entire family was erased from the civil registry in this bombing.”
The Washington Post spoke with Youssif Saudi, a 22-year-old freelance videographer who was at nearby al-Ahli hospital when the strike occurred, and rushed to Al-Zahraa School before the ambulances could arrive and “found people scrambling to pull survivors from the rubble. He said he saw at least 10 bodies, including those of women and children. Two missiles struck classrooms on the northern side of the building, he said, where around a thousand people were sheltering. “The scene was very difficult,” he said.”
According to multiple posts by Facebook users, several individuals were also injured in the attack on Al-Zahraa School, though without specific names or further details. A separate incident, published by Airwars with code ISPT080824m, also took place that day on a school – with sources referencing “dozens” of injured across the two incidents. The injuries for this incident have been quantified as 12-24 to account for this uncertainty.
Media outlets such as @Sa7atPlBreaking and Palestine TV reported that the strikes on Al-Zahraa School and Abdul Fattah Hamoud School occurred simultaneously.
The IDF released a statement on their Twitter/X account announcing their involvement in the strike, stating “Hamas terrorists who operated from command and control centers embedded in the areas of the ‘Abdelfattah Hamouda’ and ‘Al-Zahra’ schools in Daraj Tuffah were targeted in an intelligence-based IAF strike a short while ago. Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, surveillance, and additional intelligence.”
As there was no reported death toll of targeted Hamas militants by either Israeli officials or other sources, the belligerent range will be updated as further information comes to light.
*Airwars has listed them as children based on ages of relatives and descriptions of the youngest generation of the family as “children” by multiple sources.
The incident occured at approximately 3:00 pm local time.
The victims were named as:
Family members (12)
Summary
Sources (30) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (30) [ collapse]
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Source: Dr. Abu Malik Mahani -
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Source: Dr. Abu Malik Mahani -
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Source: Dr. Abu Malik Mahani -
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Source: Dr. Abu Malik Mahani -
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Source: Mahmoud Harara -
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Source: Mahmoud Harara -
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Source: Mahmoud Harara -
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Source: Rashad Ragab -
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Source: Rashad Ragab -
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Source: Rashad Ragab -
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Source: Rashad Ragab -
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Source: Mahmoud Mahani -
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Source: Mahmoud Mahani -
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Source: Gehan Ali -
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Source: Gehan Ali -
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Source: Washington Post
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Source: Washington Post
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Source: Washington Post
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Source: Mondoweiss
Israeli Military Assessment:
Original strike reports
Schools are meant for education, not to be used as terrorist hubs.
Hamas terrorists who operated from command and control centers embedded in the areas of the 'Abdelfattah Hamouda' and 'Al-Zahra' schools in Daraj Tuffah were targeted in an intelligence-based IAF strike a short while ago.
Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, surveillance, and additional intelligence.
Hamas systematically violates international law, exploiting civilian structures and their population as human shields for its terrorist attacks against the State of Israel.