Incident Code
Incident Date
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Airwars Assessment
In the afternoon of Saturday, October 14th 2023, a number of civilians were killed and injured in an alleged Israeli airstrike on the Khaled bin Al-Walid Mosque in the middle of Deir Al-Balah on Abu Arif Street in central Gaza.
The Palestinian Information Center reported on the alleged airstrike, stating there were “a number of martyrs and injuries” as a result of the bombing, with Saet al-Watan describing it as “a massacre”, and Sabri Farra saying “Massacres do not stop.” Khalid Murtaja further reported that the strike happened during afternoon prayer at the mosque. Most other sources quoted the statement by the Palestinian Information Center, with no sources specifying the exact number of civilians killed or injured.
Only one source identified the belligerent as the Israeli military, therefore Airwars has qualified the strike status as a “single source claim”.
Key Information
Geolocation Notes
Reports of the incident mention the vicinity of Khaled bin al Walid Mosque (مسجد خالد بن الوليد) to the east of Deir al Balah (دير البلح), for which the generic coordinates are: 31.411313, 34.353285. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.