(Previous Incident Code: R4706)

Shortly before 18:23 on Tuesday, 26 November 2024, an artillery strike hit the Imam al-Nawawi Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences (Quran memorization institute) located in the city of Ariha (Jericho), south of Idlib, Syria. The attack reportedly killed at least three children and injured 13-15 children. Reportedly, more than 40 children were staying at the school at the time of the attack.

The deceased have been identified as: Abdulqader Suliman (14 years old), Said Sarjawi (14 years old) and a child Taim Firas Othman, while the 13 injured children were identified as Mohammed Hussein Daboul, Ahmed Mohammed Shabib, Abdul Aziz Zenklo, Youssef Zayyat, Bahaa Badra, Mohammed al-Asi, Ahmed Mohammed Haj Musa (16 years old), Othman Sarjawi, Mustafa Haj Ismail (14 years old), Mustafa Qaddour (17 years old), Abdul Jalil Tarkawi, Ali Zaher al-Hassan, and Mahmoud Agjah (13 years old). A tweet by @Almohrar1 contained a picture where the names of the civilians killed and injured were written. Journalist Ahmed Rahhal alleged that all the wounded were children.

A Facebook account “Ariha” shared an image of three bodies in white body bags on the floor and wrote an emotional caption:

“#Ariha 11/26/2024. The dreams have ended, and the last chapter of their cruel story has been written. They were born with death and lived their lives with death amidst the sounds of planes and bombing. They dreamed of playing in the alleys of their ancient city, dreaming of peace that was erased from their lives and replaced by death and fear.”

A Facebook account “Lion” claimed that there were four “martyrs”, but other sources did not corroborate this information, and there was no information on the name of the potential fourth victim.

Most of the victims were children who studied and tried to memorize the Holy Quran. A Facebook user, Shadi Skhitha, wrote: “The memorizers of the Holy Quran have departed, but its light remains, bearing witness to the ugliness of the crime.”

The first information about the attack was published on X/Twitter and Facebook by @Almohrar at 18:23, with an initial list of dead and injured; @SyrianCivilDefe also reported the attack a few minutes later at 18:46. In the hours that followed, several accounts posted further details and images of the aftermath. Pictures showed the damage to the building, with broken windows, a partially collapsed roof in front of the facade, and debris and blood among books, prayer mats, and other school furniture.

A Facebook post by the SEMA organisation confirmed that the wounded had been received by the specialised surgical hospital in Idlib and transferred to intensive care. The same post includes pictures of medics operating on a young boy.

Other images from @SyrianCivilDefe, believed to be from the same hospital, showed the three victims in body bags, medics carrying an injured boy on a stretcher, and an operating room with blood and personal belongings on the floor. X/Twitter user @Hamoudi_Free_Sy shared two images showing two of the boys injured in the attack, one a young boy in a dusty blue thobe with blood streaming from his forehead, while the other, apparently older, covers his injured left shoulder with his hand. The user who posted the pictures did not give the names of the boys in question.

Facebook user Al Markaz posted a number of striking images owned by the Macromedia Center. The first image showed the beige facade of the institute with broken windows and frames, and a lot of debris in front of it. The second image showed a windowsill with blood stains on a book lying there, while the third image showed the room inside with a lot of debris. Other images showed close-ups of the broken windows.

A video reportage submitted on Twitter/X by the journalist Ahmed Rahhal (@pressrahhal) showed three bodies in white sacks stained with blood, the destruction inside the Institute, where one could see books and bread also stained with blood. All the windows were broken from the explosion, and there were some holes in the wall. Ahmed told the following:

“Three child martyrs and more than 14 wounded, all of them children, as a result of the Iranian and Russian occupation militias targeting the city of Jericho (Ariha) with artillery shells, specifically their targeting of this site where I am now, which is an institute for memorizing the Holy Quran. It is also a small closed school that brings together children from the Jabal al-Zawiya area and from the contact lines areas, where there are no schools and no access to education. They study here in this closed place and learn the Holy Quran and cosmic sciences.

According to those in charge of the institute, more than 40 children were present here in this place. Of course, the targeting took place directly in this location. The artillery shell included the sale of the wall, and then the shrapnel fell here in the corners of the courtyard and lobby of this site, in addition to directly in the room where the largest number of children were present. Inside this room, unfortunately, there were many of these children. You see here one of the shrapnel remnants. What did it do to the walls of this wall and other shrapnel that penetrated this place to the inside? You see here when bread mixes with blood and next to it the Holy Quran in this location that was hit directly. Here is a book from Mathematics for those children who were studying the Qur’an and cosmic signs here on this site.”

The Syrian journalist Muhammad Abu al-Huda al-Homsi (@aboalhodaalhoms) also reported from the place of attack, where many school bags were still seen lying on the floor. He told the following: “The Lebanese Hezbollah militia and the Assad regime forces hit an institute for Quran memorisation. More than 15 children were here, receiving lessons for memorising the Quran. Unfortunately, the Hezbollah militia and regime forces targeted this institute with a number of strikes and also caused great destruction here. This attack resulted in three children killed and 14 injured. Unfortunately, this targeting was wide and continuous, happening daily. {…} As we see, these are children’s school bags. They are clear evidence that these sectarian militias continue relentlessly to bomb and target areas in southwestern Syria, the governorate of Idlib and Ariha in the governorate of Idlib.”

In a video posted by @Almohrar1 on Twitter/X, one of the injured boys, having a visible scratch on his nose, told reporters about what happened while lying on a hospital bed: “We were about forty children, and while we were reading the Quran, the shell fell. We didn’t know how to get out. Those who stayed inside stayed, and those who got out got out. “

Then an elderly man spoke to the reporter, saying, “Suddenly, we saw the child in the house. We asked him what happened. He said that the institute was bombed and he told us that he didn’t know who died and who was alive. This child had a shrapnel in his stomach. I called my neighbor, and he called the civil defense. They came and took him to the hospital.”  While he was talking, he pointed to a visible wound on the stomach of the child.

In a video posted by Creative Syrians (@CrSyrians) on Twitter/X, the narrator held the Syrian regime forces and affiliated militias responsible for the devastating attack on the school, saying the following: “Three children were killed and more than 13 were injured, most of whom were children. Assad militias committed a massacre in the city of Ariha against students of a religious institute there. They directly targeted the building with artillery shells, causing this horrific massacre in which pages of the Quran were mixed with the blood of its readers, in a new confirmation of the brutality and bloodshed of these militias.”

The responsibility for the attack remains controversial, with some sources pointing to the Syrian regime and/or the Russian military, while others suggest the involvement of Iranian (Hezbollah) militias.