Airwars assessment
On October 16, 2023, 20 civilians were killed, including at least five children and three women, and a large number were injured in an alleged Israeli airstrike that hit the al-Arair family home on Al Khalayel road, in the Al Shujaya neigborhood, Gaza City.
Asma Mohammed, Beit Dajan Today, News Najah, Nabd and al-Haya reported on social media that there were “martyrs and injuries in the bombing of the Al-Arair family’s house”, with Asma noting that people were transporting the casualties “in civilian cars”, sharing images of corpses and injured civilians being carried by other civilians. Mahmoud Harara shared a video of the injured being carried on stretchers and into ambulances, with others attempting to search the rubble of the destroyed building for survivors. He stated that there were “a large number of casualties”, and that “some were taken out and the rest were under the rubble.”
Abeer Aljna posted that “a house inhabited by dozens was bombed”, terming it a “massacre”, while the Gaza News Networks said the house, which belonged to Imad al-Arair, was allegedly bombed “without warning, with about 25 people in it.” Twitter/X user PSLK1154 noted that the alleged bombing took place in the afternoon and that there were “a large number of victims.” Solomon L Reer posted that there were 20 killed in the “al-Arair family massacre”, while Mossad al-Arair posted that two female civilians killed and a child were “still missing under the rubble.”
On October 9th, 2024 the Airwars Investigations Unit, along with Sky News, published an investigation geolocating and matching airstrike footage released by the Israeli military with incidents in the Airwars archive. In total, Airwars’ team identified 17 strikes leading to civilian harm from the first month of the war, of which the Israeli military itself had published footage. This strike was among the 17. As such this incident has been reclassified as a declared Israeli strike, rather than a likely one.
According to relatives on social media, among those killed are 58-year-old Imad al-Arair (Abu Umar), his wife Umm Umar, their sons 30-year-old Khaled al-Arair, 16-year-old Abd al-Qadir al-Arair and 31-year-old Umar al-Arair, Umar’s wife, and their daughter. Also killed were Imad’s daughter, her husband, her three children, as well as 37-year-old Deep al-Arair and Iyad al-Arair
Photos of the injured and deceased circulate social media and family and friends posted heartfelt and devastating messages. Esraa Aree wrote “a massacre against my family, the al-Arait family. Deep, my cousin, is a martyr, and a number of child martyrs. Some are still under the rubble.”
Muhammad Nabil wrote “My brother, my lover, and my lifelong companion, Umar al-Arair, is a martyr. Your separation is painful, my love.. May God give me patience over your separation, accept you, and grant you the highest paradise in heaven”, sharing an image of himself with Umar, a smiling bearded young man.
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 belligerents all sources attributed the strikes to Israeli forces.
According to sources, the incident occurred in the afternoon and without warning.
The incident occured in the afternoon.
The victims were named as:
Family members (14)
Geolocation notes (3) [ collapse]
Reports of the incident mention an alleged strike on a residential building on the al Khalayel Road (طريق الخلايل), east of Gaza city (غزة). Analysing audio-visual material from sources, we have narrowed the location down to the following exact coordinates: 31.497167, 34.471646. The Airwars team matched these exact coordinates to a screenshot taken at 0:14 of the strike video shared by the IDF to Twitter/X (see strike reports below).
Summary
Sources (16) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (8) [ collapse]
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Source: Asma mohammad -
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Source: Asma mohammad -
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Source: Asma mohammad -
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Source: Asma mohammad -
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Source: Muhammad Nabil -
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Source: Also Solomon L. Reer -
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Israeli Military Assessment:
Original strike reports
During the last day, the IDF attacked over 200 military terrorist infrastructures of the Hamas organization and the GAP throughout the Gaza Strip.
Fighter jets attacked operational headquarters of the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip and eliminated terrorist operatives.
Also, a bank used by the terrorist organization Hamas to finance terrorism in the Gaza Strip and a number of underground terrorist tunnels in the territory of the Gaza Strip were attacked.