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Airwars Assessment
In the early hours of Thursday, 26th December 2024, a medic was killed in what appears to be a ‘double tap’ strike in front of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, Gaza Strip. Maintenance technician, 21-year-old Fares Khalil Ibrahim al-Hawdali, was responding to a first strike that had harmed civilians outside of the hospital when he was killed in a second attack.
According to Dr Hussam Abu Sufia, Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, when Al-Hawdali saw the scene of the initial strike, he rushed to try to save anyone he could, but he was killed instead.
The news was part of multiple press releases by the Gazan Health Ministry. They wrote, “Fares Al-Hawdali was also killed while trying to rescue the injured.”
Saed Abu Nabhan, Al-Hawdali’s cousin, posted on Facebook about the death and shared a picture of him smiling and wearing a black zip-up jacket and jeans. “May God have mercy on you,” he wrote in his tribute. The late Fares appeared to be a very young man, with a clean-shaven round face and dark hair and eyes. Matching his name to an entry in the ninth Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) list of fatalities, Airwars determined it likely that Fares was 21-years-old when he was killed.
Another cousin, Yasmin Salah, also posted following the death, saying it was a “sorrow” in their hearts. She shared a photo of Al-Hawdali lying down, legs outstretched, wearing a black t-shirt and jeans.
Safa News, Anas Al Shareef, and MSDR News also reported on Al-Hawdali’s death.
The following day, at 12:54 PM, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) posted to Telegram, declaring a raid on the Kamal Adwan hospital. The statement declared the ground operation, but not the preceding strikes. In line with Airwars’ methodology, researchers have not recorded this as a declared strike but have saved the IDF Telegram post in relation to this incident, and will update the associated strike status should additional information become available.
Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the attack to the Israeli military.
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Geolocation Notes
Reports of the incident mention the vicinity of Kamal Adwan Hospital (مستشفى كمال عدوان) in Beit Lahia (مخيم جباليا), for which the generic coordinates are: 31.538611, 34.501111. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.

