Civilian Casualties

Civilian Casualties

Incident Code

ISPT0145a

Incident date

October 12, 2023

Location

منزل عائلة أبو هلال بحي الجنينة برفح ,, Abu Hilal family in the El Geneina neighborhood in Rafah, Gaza strip, the Gaza Strip

Airwars assessment

On October 12th 2023 at least four members of the Abu Hilal family were killed, including eight month pregnant Amani Muhammad Hassan Abu Hilal, and her their three young sons – in an alleged Israeli airstrike in El Geneina, Rafah, in the Gaza strip. The children’s father, Jamal Ali Abu Hilal, was also reported as injured.

Facebook user @mohamedAnaya9 shared a video which allegedly depicts the Abu Hilal family house in the El Geneina neighborhood, which is destroyed along with neighboring houses to rubble.

Friends and family identified the following victims on social media as Amani Muhammad Hassan Abu Hilal, the mother and wife, her eight month fetus and her three sons Ahmad Jamal Ali Abu HilalAli Jamal Ali Abu Hilal and Muhammad Jamal Ali Abu Hilal.

The father, Jamal Abu Hilal, who is identified by relatives and friends on social media as an engineer, was taken into intensive care after being critically injured in the attack.

The victims’ deaths were mourned by friends and family on Social media. Noureddine Abu Hilal described the three children as ‘birds of paradise’, attaching a photo which depicts the young boys standing alongside one another in jeans and shirts, smiling gently toward the camera.

One of the young sons, Muhammad Jamal Ali Abu Hilal, is described in a Facebook post by his teacher, Learn English with Alaa, as a ‘distinguished student’. His teacher posted a heartfelt testimony about the death of his student, writing that Muhammad “ left with his brothers and their mother. Where is the humanity!!!! Where are you, world!!! What is the fault of these innocent children!!!!”. A shared video depicts the boy in the midst of a language class in front of a chalkboard speaking confidently in English.

On Facebook, Umm Mohammad Abu Hilal, referred to “two massacres” which hit her family the same day, the first one killing two brothers, and the second one leading to the death of Amani Muhammad Hassan Abu Hilal and her children. The first incident has been coded separately as ISPT0145. Several local sources claimed that 12 members of Abu Hilal family were killed – though Airwars could only identify eight victims by name in the two separate attacks. @esraasaid2 on Twitter affirmed that among those 12 victims, three infants “born 10 days ago” were killed, without specifying in which incident they were killed or providing their names. Airwars’ maximum death toll estimates for this incident and for ISPT0145 was set at 12, as no further information was available regarding these four additional victims. As such, it is possible that the maximum number of victims may contain casualties from both incidents. Airwars will update its estimates when more information comes to light.

Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the strikes to Israeli forces.

Airwars has matched the names of the mother and her three children killed with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of nearly 7000 victims’ names and ID numbers released on October 26th.

The local time of the incident is unknown.

The victims were named as:

Family members (5)

Amani Muhammad Hassan Abu Hilal أماني محمد حسن أبو هلال
35 years old female pregnant killed Matched to MoH ID 801266453
Jamal Ali Abu Hilal جمال أبو هلال
Adult male Amani's husband injured
Ahmad Jamal Ali Abu Hilal أحمد جمال علي أبو هلال
11 years old male Amani and Jamal's child killed Matched to MoH ID 433348711
Ali Jamal Ali Abu Hilal  علي جمال علي أبو هلال
9 years old male Amani and Jamal's child killed Matched to MoH ID 433570397
Muhammad Jamal Ali Abu Hilal محمد جمال على أبو هلال
12 years old male Amani and Jamal's child killed Matched to MoH ID 432375111

Summary

  • Strike status
    Likely strike
  • Strike type
    Airstrike
  • Civilian infrastructure
    Residential building
  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    4 – 12
  • (3 children1 woman)
  • Civilians reported injured
    1
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Fair
    Reported by two or more credible sources, with likely or confirmed near actions by a belligerent.
  • Suspected belligerent
    Israeli Military

Sources (11) [ collapse]

Media
from sources (5) [ collapse]

  • This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.

    Source: Noureddine Abu Hilal
  • This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.

    Source: Mahmoud Abu Helal
  • This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.

    Source: Yousry Abu Hilal
  • This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.

    Source: Learn English with Alaa
  • This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.

Israeli Military Assessment:

  • Suspected belligerent
    Israeli Military
  • Israeli Military position on incident
    Not yet assessed

Summary

  • Strike status
    Likely strike
  • Strike type
    Airstrike
  • Civilian infrastructure
    Residential building
  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    4 – 12
  • (3 children1 woman)
  • Civilians reported injured
    1
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Fair
    Reported by two or more credible sources, with likely or confirmed near actions by a belligerent.
  • Suspected belligerent
    Israeli Military

Sources (11) [ collapse]