Geolocation
Airwars assessment
On Wednesday, October 11th 2023, an alleged Israeli airstrike hit the Abu Shab family house in the town of Khan Yunis, killing eight family members, including five women and three children, and injuring up to 15 other civilians. The owner of the house, Omar Abu Shab Abu Rifaat, was severely injured and remained in intensive care as of the 11th October. This incident is closely connected to another incident, ISPT0124, which reflects civilian fatalities in a neighbouring house in a strike on the same day.
A 43-year old Hala Suleiman Awadallah Abu Shab (Shabab) was killed together with her daughters, 20-year old Rana Raif Salman Abu Shab (Shabab) and 23-year old Shaima Raif Salman Abu Shab (Shabab), as well as Shaima’s small daughter. Other victims included 23-year old Alaa Omar Suleiman Abu Shab (Shabab), as well as the wife of Rifaat Omar Salman Abu Shab (her name was not indicated in testimonies), and her children, a one-year old son Amir Rifaat Omar Salman Abu Shab (Shabab) and a three-year old girl Nagham Refaat Omar Salman Abu Shab (Shabab). Mahmoud Abu Rahma posted pictures of these two small children who lost their lives in the attack on Facebook.
The victims’ relatives and friends – Fadi Abu Khater, Om Fathi Abu Shab, Dahir ABu Shab, and Mamhmoud Saqr mourned the death of their loved ones in the testimonies on Facebook. Rakab family expressed its deepest condolensces to its neighbours, Abu Shab family.
Describing the attack on the two family houses (Abu Shab and Al-Agha, the latter described in another incident – ISPT0124), the Shehab Agency correspondent wrote about up to 15 injured civilians, but later the Wafa agency reported about “injury of dozens”.
Airwars recorded the identified victims members of Al-Agha family in another incident, coded as ISPT0124. Though, as some sources only provided a total number of victims from both family houses, there might be some overlap between the estimated number of civilians injured recorded in this incident and in ISP0124. Airwars will update both assessments once new information is available.
Where possible, names have been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of fatalities in Gaza released on October 26th, 2023.
Where a belligerent was identified, sources attributed the strike to Israeli forces. Sources report that the airstrike occurred 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 local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Family members (9)
Summary
Sources (16) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (11) [ collapse]
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Source: Mohammed Wael facebook -
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Source: Mahmoud Abu Rahma facebook -
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Source: Om Fathi Abu Shab facebook -
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Source: Om Fathi Abu Shab facebook -
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Source: Om Fathi Abu Shab facebook -
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Source: Om Fathi Abu Shab facebook -
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Source: Om Fathi Abu Shab facebook -
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Source: Om Fathi Abu Shab facebook -
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Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the city of Khan Younis (خان يونس), for which the generic coordinates are: 31.346149, 34.303899. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.