(Previous Incident Code: ISPT141 )

Two civilians – a woman and a young girl – were killed and up to six others, including four children and “women”, were injured by alleged Israeli drone strikes in Beit Hanoun on August 6th 2022.

A woman, Naama Tulba Abu Qaida, aged between 60 and 62, was killed when an Israeli forces missile hit a group of people who were getting into a vehicle ahead of her son’s wedding on August 6th 2022 in the Gaza Strip.

Five children from the same family were reported injured. One of the young girls, Haneen Abu Qaida, 10 years old, later died from her injuries that she sustained in this airstrike, as reported in a local source on August 8th 2022. Mondoweiss reported that Haneen was the eldest of two daughters in her family of five and that during the attack she sustained critical wounds to her leg and back, Her father Waleed told Mondoweiss that “Everything beautiful in my life is gone. When they told me she passed away, I died too.”

Reports indicated that Naama was in the car (Hyundai Tucson SUV) with her son, who was the groom, as they were going to take the bride to the wedding. According to local sources, during the wedding of Naama’s son, Akran Mohammed Eid Abu Qaida, aged 23, a group of people were targeted after arriving at the bride’s house. A jeep was reportedly hit, belonging to the Qaida family. The Qaida family were residents of Ezbet Beit Hanoun near Al-Tawhid Mosque, where the wedding party was celebrated. They were on the way to take the bride to her husband’s house.

A relative of the groom’s mother says: “we were in the courtyard of the house, waiting for Umm Walid for her son to go to the bride’s house, and they would bring her to the groom’s house in silence, out of respect for the blood of the martyrs, because the bombing came suddenly and we were not expecting all of this.”

Abu Qaida, the father, said that there was no military activity in the targeted location and said that “the crime of the occupation against us on our son’s wedding day should not go unnoticed. The wedding ceremony has turned into a funeral home.” He stressed “the need to document this crime of occupation, publish it on the widest scale and invoke international reactions to targeting safe civilians.”

Eyewitnesses told Al-Ayyam “Seconds after the vehicle stopped and the children and women wrapped around it, the groom’s father was able to get off and leave, and the martyr began to get off the vehicle, but the sound of two loud explosions followed by the ignition of the vehicle caused terror and fear in the place. After the smoke cleared, [Namaa’s] body unfolded, mixed with her Palestinian dress and the bouquets of roses she carried.”

Mondoweiss added details that Naama was a mother of seven children. Her son Akram told Mondoweiss “It is a memory of pain stuck in my heart. The day that was supposed to be my wedding day turned out to be my mother’s funeral.”

Felesteen News reported that three children were injured in the attack, including a nine year old whose foot had to be amputated due to the depth of the wounds and another who was “undergoing treatment on intensive care beds due to his critical injury”. Al-Ayyam named one of the injured as  the child Muhammad Abu Katifa (ten years old), who is the bride’s brother.

Aljadeed posted on Facebook that in addition to the death of Naama, six others were injured and @RamAbdu mentioned that women and children were among the injured. Quds Press News put the number of injuries at seven, including the girl Haneen who later died of her injuries.

@RamAbdu identified the location as being near Beit Hanoun Erez Crossing. All of the sources that reported on the incident attributed the strikes to Israel.