Geolocation
Airwars assessment
In the morning of Thursday, October 12th 2023, a high-ranked member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Awad Ghalib al Sultan was killed together with at least five members of the al Sultan family, including a child, in an alleged Israeli strike on the Awad al-Sultan’s family house in the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. At least two family members were injured in the attack.
38-year old Commander Awad Ghalib Al Sultan was killed together with his 5-year old son Suhaib Awad Ghaleb al Sultan. The body of Awad was transferred to the Indonesian Hospital in the neighboring town of Beit Lahia.
Among the killed victims of the attack were two brothers of the wife of the late Awad, a 31-year old Jihad Khaled Mohammad Al Sultan and 19-year old Bahaa khaled Mohammad Al Sultan. Their father Khaled al-Sultan and their mother as well as the children of Jihad were reported as injured in the attack, according to the Facebook post by Wadih Al-Sultan.
Two brothers, a 33-year old Ibrahim Awni al-Sultan and Raed Awni al-Sultan, also lost their lives in the attack, according to the tribute by Mesbah E. Sultan.
Ahmed A Sultan posted an obituary by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine dedicated to the late Awad where it was said that “the Popular Front and the National Movement lost one of its most prominent fighters”. It further noted that Awad had been a member of the Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, an active militant group in Gaza, during which he carried out combat missions, especially at sea. He was reportedly arrested in 2010 on a boat off the coast of the Northern Gaza Strip while performing a combat mission, and was released in 2018. Awad was then elected as a member of the General Central Committee of the Popular Front at the Eighth National Congress of the Front in May 2022, and served as an official at the Prisoner’s Department.
Mohammed H Sultan wrote in his Facebook testimony dedicated to Awad and his son: “We belong to Allah and to Him we shall return. With hearts that believe in God’s will and destiny, we mourn my cousin, the martyr, the freed prisoner, Awad Ghaleb al-Sultan, and his son Suhaib Awad al-Sultan”.
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.
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 morning.
The victims were named as:
Family members (7)
Summary
Sources (24) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (8) [ collapse]
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Source: Mohammed H Sultan -
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Source: Mohammed H Sultan -
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Source: Wadih Al-Sultan -
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Source: Wadih Al-Sultan -
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Source: Wadih Al-Sultan -
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Source: Wadih Al-Sultan -
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Source: @Jales_tinian2 -
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Source: @Jales_tinian2
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the town of Jabalia (جباليا), for which the generic coordinates are: 31.538711, 34.495107. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.