Geolocation
Airwars assessment
On October 9th, 2023, an alleged Israeli airstrike hit an area near the Grand Mosque in central Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza strip, and an old municipality building in its vicinity, injuring civilians and reportedly killing a number of others. Wafa news reports that the Grand Mosque, which is one of the most important landmarks in the city of Khan Yunis, was attacked with several missiles, wounding a number of passers-by.
While there are no names of victims available within the sources, Shehab Agency, Ahram News, and Safa all reported that the strike had caused at least several injuries, while some sources (Abbad news) spoke about many injured civilians. Only one source, a tweet by @Mohamedmuhanna9, reported about the allegedly killed civilians: “The Grand Mosque in central Khan Yunis was targeted, and there were a number of injuries and martyrs at the scene”. As no clear number was provided regarding the number of civilians wounded, Airwars ranged the number of injured to be between two and ten based on an aggregation of multiple references to many injured civilians.
Multiple sources, including Abadd News, a Facebook user Albader, and 26 September Net, all alleged that Israeli forces intended to hit the mosque, while Shehab Agency and Najah TV alleged the strike was aimed at a house nearby the mosque. All sources claim the strike hit a civilian area within Gaza.
The exact time of the incident and further details about the victims are unknown. Airwars recorded a civilian harm incident the same day resulting in the deaths of at least several civilians and in the destruction of the old municipality building of Khan Yunis, which is adjacent to the Grand Mosque. As at least one source mentioned “several strikes”, this incident has been coded separately as ISP0045. Given the proximity of the locations of both incidents, and the lack of details regarding the victims of ISPT0060, it is possible that some of the casualty figures tracked here overlap. Airwars will update both incidents should new information come to light.
Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the strikes to Israeli forces.
Due to the scale and urgency of Airwars’ assessment process, all images have been automatically uploaded to each assessment with the graphic filter applied to protect users. We have also included all images identified from the sources, which may also include any imagery of combatants.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the vicinity of the Grand Mosque (المسجد الكبير) in the city of Khan Younis (خان يونس), for which the generic coordinates are: 31.343624, 34.302462. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.