Geolocation
Airwars assessment
At least four people from the Abu Butihan family were killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike on their home on October 17th, 2023.
Major General Fouad Ali Abu Butihan, 55, was the head of the Crossing and Borders Authority and would oversee crossings out of the Gaza Strip. It was reported that he was killed along with three of his children, a 19 year old son named Jihad Fouad Ali Abu Buttihan, and two other children.
Although Fouad was referred to as a ‘major general’, the description of his role suggests he held a government position, likely to be related to law enforcement, rather than military activity. His combatant status is therefore civilian rather than combatant in this assessment. Airwars will update this assessment should further information come to light about Fouad’s role.
A source on Facebook, Wael Abu Omar, stated two daughters had been killed, while the Abu Buttihan Family Youth Council offered condolences to Abu Butihan and his three sons. Multiple other sources also offered a speedy recovery to the wounded, but none identified how many people had been wounded.
The Hamas-run government posted a commemorative article for Abu Butihan: “We mourn a government leader who worked in many government work sites, and he was an example of sincerity and dedication to work and service to our people. We also bid farewell to a national leader who is attested in the field of resistance to [Israel], and who paid the captivity tax for years in [Israeli] prisons.”
Funeral prayers were held later the same day in the courtyard of the al-Aqsa Hospital.
Where possible, Airwars has matched names with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of nearly 7000 victims’ names and ID numbers released on October 26th.
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 local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Family members (4)
Summary
Sources (25) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (33) [ collapse]
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Source: @ShehabAgency -
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Source: Paltodaytv news -
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Source: Palinfo news -
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Source: Petra news -
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Source: @MohamadDaba9966 -
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Source: @alrayps -
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Source: @alrayps -
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Source: @alrayps -
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Source: @alrayps -
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Source: @Rassd_Oman -
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Source: @SinaiTribes -
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Source: @bawabaanews -
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Source: @PolitiketAr -
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Source: @akhbar -
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Source: @WaelAboOmer -
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Source: Wael -
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Source: Mohamedjebriel -
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Source: Mohamedjebriel -
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Source: Mohamedjebriel -
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Source: Mohamedjebriel -
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Source: Mohamedjebriel -
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Source: Mohamedjebriel -
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Source: Mediagovps -
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Source: Groups -
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Source: Mohamedjebriel -
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Source: Mohamedjebriel -
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Source: Mohamedjebriel -
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Source: Mohamedjebriel -
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Source: Committee of the Youth of the Abu Batihan Family -
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Source: Committee of the Youth of the Abu Batihan Family -
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Source: Committee of the Youth of the Abu Batihan Family -
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Source: Committee of the Youth of the Abu Batihan Family -
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Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the town of Nuseirat (النصيرات), for which the generic coordinates are: 31.450065, 34.392934. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.