Airwars assessment
Before 11 AM on Friday, November 3rd, 2023, the Al-Hawajri family home located in the vicinity of Bilal bin Rabah Mosque in Nuseirat Refugee Camp, Gaza Strip, was hit by an alleged Israeli airstrike. According to several accounts, the attack reportedly killed twelve Al-Hawajri family members, including two women and four children, and a number of civilians were injured.
The Palestinian news agency Safa was the first to report the incident at 11:04 AM, writing that a number of civilians were killed and injured. Social media tributes by family relatives and friends helped Airwars to identify the names of the victims.
61-year-old Zaki Misbah al-Hawajri (Abu Awad) was killed alongside his 56-year-old wife Samira Hussein al-Hawajri, their three sons, 35-year-old Mahmoud Zaki al-Hawajri, 32-year-old Hamza Zaki al-Hawajri, and 38-year-old Awad Zaki al-Hawajri, and their daughter-in-law Islam Hatem Mohsen (age unavailable). Their grandsons, seven-year-old Karam Awad Zaki al-Hawajr and four-year-old Mohammad Awad Zaki al-Hawajri were also killed, as were their two nephews, nine-year-old Mahmoud Kamel al-Hawajri and 12-year-old Mona Kamel al-Hawajri.
Among the victims of the strike were also a 69-year-old man, Abdul Rahman Mutlaq Zaqout, and Abdul Rahman Riad Zaqout. It is not clear from the sources how they were related to the Al-Hawajri family, but their names are mentioned on the list of the family’s victims.
In a post by Diaa Mohamed, which includes multiple photographs of the deceased, one man appears holding a gun. Owning small arms in Gaza is fairly common, and ownership of a weapon does not necessarily mean this man was a member of an armed group. However, given the dispersed and informal nature of armed groups within Gaza, as well as the nature of the weapon held, this man has been categorised with “contested” civilian status. Though the man is unidentified, it is most likely he is either Hamza Zaki al-Hawajri, or Awad Zaki al-Hawajri, based on age. Airwars has added a belligerent range of 0-1 to reflect this, though has not attributed contested civilian status to either man specifically, due to the lack of information regarding the man’s identity.
In a Facebook post by Summa Bassam, she claimed that the “Al-Hawajri family is one of the families that we are proud of in Al-Nuseirat camp. This struggling family sets the best examples of sacrifice and giving… We will not say goodbye, but we will say we will meet in heaven…”.
A Facebook post by Alsharq Alan pictured a young girl being pulled out of debris, claiming that this occurred after the strike on the Al-Hawjri family home. In another post, Yassir Yousif shared a picture of a young boy found under the rubble, wrapped in blankets and appearing deceased. Mohammed Hussien, who was related to the family, asked God to “have mercy on them” and “grant them the highest paradise”, whilst sharing the list of ten family members who lost their lives in this alleged airstrike.
Individual pictures were shared by grieving family members like Diaa Mohamed, portraying Mahmoud Zaki al-Hawajri and his father Hajj Abu Awad hugging while kissing each other on the cheek. Other pictures showed two little boys smiling at the camera, and the final image showed a boy covered in blankets, recently pulled out of the debris.
In another post by Yassir Yousif, a picture captured Zaki Misbah al-Hawajr smiling and wearing a suit.
An image shared by Sahora Mohammed stands out, picturing a small boy holding a decorated frame around himself and looking into the camera, wearing what appears to be a school uniform. In the second picture, a boy is crossing his arms and smiling at the camera, wearing a backpack. The final image displays seven body bags of the family, with the smallest one appearing to belong to an infant. Sahora announced with these images that his “dear brother passed away” and asked that “God have mercy on [his] family”. He lamented the passing of the “honorable Al-Hawajri family”, remembering them as the “cleanest, purest and kindest of God’s creation”. Indeed, Sahora stressed: “God will take the good people with Him because they have no place among people”.
On Facebook, Ismael Mustafa shared several pictures showing the completely destroyed family home, with civilians searching the rubble for survivors.
Where possible, names have been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) lists, which include national ID numbers. Since October 26, 2023, the MoH has released six lists, along with an additional list of medical professionals, which was released on September 15, 2024. Airwars matches individuals to the first list where their names appeared. Regarding this incident, the names of the victims are matched to the second “Palestinian Ministry of Health List of Fatalities in Gaza” list, which was released on January 7th, 2024.
Although none of the sources directly attributed the strike to the Israeli military, multiple sources used the terms “targeting” and “targeted” to describe a strike. In the context of the assessment, it is highly likely that these are references to Israeli targeting. Therefore, Airwars has graded the strike status as “likely strike”, and civilian harm status as “fair”.
The incident occured at approximately 11:00 am local time.
The victims were named as:
Family members (10)
Family members (2)
Summary
Sources (16) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (32) [ collapse]
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Source: Alsharq alan -
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Source: Ismael Mustafa -
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Source: Ismael Mustafa -
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Source: Ismael Mustafa -
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Source: Ismael Mustafa -
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Source: Ismael Mustafa -
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Source: Ismael Mustafa -
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Source: Ismael Mustafa -
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Source: Ismael Mustafa -
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Source: Ismael Mustafa -
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Source: Yassir Yousif -
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Source: Mohammed Hussien -
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Source: Diaa Mohamed -
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Source: Diaa Mohamed -
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Source: Diaa Mohamed -
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Source: Diaa Mohamed -
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Source: Diaa Mohamed -
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Source: Diaa Mohamed -
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Source: Diaa Mohamed -
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Source: Jehad Almobayed -
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Source: Jehad Almobayed -
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Source: Jehad Almobayed -
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Source: Madint Nuseirat -
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Source: Yassir Yousif -
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Source: Sahora Mohammed -
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Source: Sahora Mohammed -
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Source: Sahora Mohammed -
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Source: Sahora Mohammed -
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Source: Sahora Mohammed -
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Source: Sahora Mohammed -
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Source: Sahora Mohammed -
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Source: Sahora Mohammed