Geolocation
Airwars assessment
On October 12th 2023, a house belonging to the Al-Balaawi family in the Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood in southern Gaza City was hit by an alleged Israeli airstrike reportedly killing at least nine civilians and injuring an unknown number of others.
Facebook posts from family members of the deceased identify Souad Abdullah Abu Jahl, her daughter Fedaa Al-Balaawi, daughter-in-law Amira Imad Siam and her children, her second daughter-in-law Sarah Osama Qadada and her infant son, and Abdul Rahman Adam Al Balaawi as killed. Some posts specified that between three and four of Souad Abdullah Abu Jahl’s grandchildren* were killed in the incident.
The Sayyam Family posted that their cousin Amira Imad Siam, daughter of engineer Imad Siam (Abu Muhammad), was killed along with her children; source Sondos.almasry, also noted that Amira was killed with her three children.
Afnan Ahmad mourned his wife and daughter online, noting that they were were among those killed.
Mohammad Alnajar paid his respects to his brother and friend Adam Abd al-Rahman al-Balaawi “Abu Muhammad” whose young son “the writer” Abdul Rahman Adam Al Balaawi was among those killed.
Shehab Agency wrote that four bystanders were killed while passing the residence when the strike allegedly occurred. Ambiguity in the number of civilians killed has been reflected in the casualty range, which could be as many as 13 people. References to injured civilian were in the plural, though no number was given – Airwars has therefore given a conservative estimate of 2-2 per our methodology.
The Palestinian Civil Defence wrote about the attack, which occurred “near “Bilal Mosque” in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood” and claimed that the injured civilians were transported from the scene, however it is not clear how many were injured in the attack. Other sources located the home as in the vicinity of Al-Falah School.
*Airwars has quantified the youngest generation as children based on the ages of their relatives and the reference to them as “children”.
When sources identified a belligerent, they attributed the strike to the Israeli forces.
Where possible, Airwars matched the names to those listed by the Palestinian Ministry of Health list released on October 26th of almost 7,000 victim names.
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 (6)
Summary
Sources (19) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (3) [ collapse]
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Source: Mohammad Alnajar -
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Source: Hamza Al-Balawi -
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Source: Mahmoud Taha Al-Balaawi
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the vicinity of Al Falah (الفلاح ) school, for which the generic coordinates are: 31.502510, 34.454678. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.