Geolocation
Airwars assessment
During the evening of Wednesday, October 11, 2023, eight civilians belonging to two different families, including six children and one woman, were killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike on the Zanoun and al-Ajez family houses located in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. A Watan correspondent reported that three residential apartments in the Carmel Tower, adjacent to Al-Shifa Hospital, west of Gaza City, were also attacked and seriously damaged.
According to the heartfelt Facebook testimony by Jihad Zanoun, his 36-year old cousin Adel Musa Zanoun was reportedly killed together with his five children – a fifteen-year old daughter Hana Adel Zanoun, a sixteen-year old daughter Shaza (Shatha) Adel Zanoun, a 13-year old son Mahmoud Adel Zanoun, a 1-year old son Yassin Adel Zanoun, and a 10-year old daughter Sajaa Adel Zanoun. The late Adel Musa Zanoun is portrayed smiling in the drivers seat of a car or a bus. Jihad added that this is already the second massacre in the Zanoun family.
The Zanoun family also mourned the death of Adel Musa and his sons in a Facebook post, wishing “glory and eternity to our righteous martyrs, and may God have mercy on them and make them dwell in His spacious paradise”. Adel’s brother, called Țặĥặ Țặĥặ on Facebook, and his cousin Shadi Zanon also grieved the death of Adel and his sons, having posted a picture of six bodies wrapped in one cloth, five of which are small enough to be children. Abdullah Attar shared pictures of the funeral prayer for the deceased members of the Zanoun family, which took place at Al-Najjar Hospital.
As a result of the airstrike on the al-Ajez family house, 48-year old Suzan Yahya Ibrahim Al-Ajez (al-Ajwzi), wife of Abu Uday Al-Ajez, was killed together with her two sons, 21-year old Yahya Emad Hassan Al-Ajez and 17-year old Abdullah Imad Hassan Al-Ajez.
Family and friends of the victims mourned their deaths. Suhaib Khaleb, a relative of the al-Ajez family, wrote on Facebook: “With hearts that believe in God’s will and destiny, three of the moons and martyrs of my family, the cousins, bleed to heaven”, posting pictures of the young and smiling Yahya and Abdullah. The same source referred to Yahya as “mujahid”, indicating that he was a militant and has therefore been excluded from the civilian harm count.
Abu Alabed, Abdullah Emad, Ibrahim Zurb and Ahmad ALjez also expressed their grief about the loss of Al-Ajez family members, posting pictures of the deceased Yahya and Abdullah.
Where possible, names have been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of fatalities in Gaza released on October 26th, 2023.
Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the strikes to Israeli forces. Multiple sources also reported that the strike happened without warning.
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 incident occured in the evening.
The victims were named as:
Family members (6)
Family members (2)
Summary
Sources (16) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (18) [ collapse]
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Source: Jihad Zanoun facebook -
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Source: Zanoun family facebook -
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Source: Taha Taha facebook -
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Source: Taha Taha facebook -
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Source: ABdullah Attar facebook -
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Source: ABdullah Attar facebook -
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Source: ABdullah Attar facebook -
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Source: Shadi Zanon facebook -
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Source: Shadi Zanon facebook -
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Source: Suhaib Khaled Facebook -
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Source: Suhaib Khaled Facebook -
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Source: Abu Alabed facebook -
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Source: Ahmad ALjez facebook -
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Source: Ahmad ALjez facebook -
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Source: Ibrahim Zurb facebook -
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Source: Ibrahim Zurb facebook -
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Source: Ibrahim ABu Asem facebook -
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Source: Ibrahim ABu Asem facebook
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the city of Rafah (زنون), for which the generic coordinates are: 31.296854, 34.243508. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.