At dawn on October 4, 2024, a declared Israeli airstrike struck a tent sheltering displaced people inside Ahmed Al Kurd School in the in Al Bassa area of Deir Al Balah, Gaza Strip, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring several others, including children.

Israeli forces claimed the strike was targeting a “command and control center” embedded in the school compound.

Mustafa Al Ameer Mohammed Fayed (14 years old) was killed during the bombardment, according to @Sa7atPlBreaking on X/Twitter and Hani Alshaer on Facebook. Aljazeera posted an image of Mustafa, a young boy wearing a tan hoodie and smiling at the camera. Multiple sources mentioned “martys” resulting from the strike but none provided a number.

Additionally, @SelemRopp reported that multiple injuries, predominantly children, occurred. Posts by @SalemRopp and @ajmubasher on X/Twitter stated that the children were asleep in the school when it was bombed.

Video footage and images were posted by @PalinfoAr, @SalemRopp, @khaberni, and @ajmubasher on X, showing scenes of injured children and destruction at the school. Another video posted by Al Nashet Mohammed Saed shows at least one injured child arriving at the hospital in an ambulance.

In a series of photos posted by Ethaat Sawt Falstin and Osama Al-Kahloo, women and children are shown inspecting a destroyed site said to be the Ahmed Al Kurd School in Deir Al Balah. Kids can be seen picking up and carrying books and notebooks around the site, trying to find their possessions amongst the rubble.

Where possible, names have been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) lists, which include national ID numbers. Airwars is matching individuals to the first list where their name appeared. In regard to this incident, Mustafa’s name was partially matched to the seventh ‘Palestinian Ministry of Health List of Fatalities in Gaza’ list. In the list, he is named as مصطفى الأمين محمد محمد فايد. However, in matching this name to Shireen’s Monitor, a 12-year-old boy from Deir al-Balah by this name was reportedly killed on October 5. As Airwars has worked extensively in name matching, it is understood that Genocide in Gaza (gigaza) and Shireen’s Monitor report consistent accounts of individuals killed in Gaza. However, sometimes the information very slightly off – ie. the date may be off by one. With this knowledge in mind, Airwars has recorded the MoH ID number matched to مصطفى الأمين محمد محمد فايد as a partial match to مصطفى الأمير محمد فايد. This will be updated should additional information become available.

The Israeli Defense Forces released a statement on Telegram declaring their involvement that “A short while ago, with the direction of IDF intelligence, the IAF struck terrorists who were operating inside a command and control center in the Gaza Strip. The command and control center was embedded inside a compound that previously served as the ‘Ahmad Al Kurd’ School in the area of the central Gaza Strip.” No additional evidence was found to support the claim of Hamas’ presence at the school at the time of the strike.