Geolocation
Airwars assessment
In the evening of Wednesday, October 18th 2023, an alleged Israeli airstrike on a yard outside the Ahmed Abdul Aziz School killed at least five civilians, including two children and three men, and reportedly injured between 12 to 40 people. The school hosted displaced civilians from Northern Gaza. The death toll may be significantly higher than five civilians as Masrawy news wrote about “dozens of martyrs and wounded”, and a correspondent of AlGhadTV reported about 40 injured people.
The school was located west of the town of Khan Yunis.
Al Jazeera posted on the Twitter/X social media platform a video showing injured people being transported to hospitals. Al Arabiya correspondent reported that civil protection crews were heading to the school.
The attack killed children of a man named Ali Al-Qara; his 15-year old daughter Najla Ali Muhammad Al-Qara and 5-year old son Zein Ali Muhammad Al-Qara. According to Majeddiyab Facebook post, they were originally from the town of Khuza’a and were displaced to the Ahmed Abdul Aziz school. Their father Ali Al-Qara wrote a heartfelt testimony on Facebook mourning the loss of his children. He also shared an image of Zein – a young boy in a t-shirt and yellow jacket.
Najla Al-Qara was known for her high school success – Anwaa Alrhel wrote about her achievements in a Facebook tribute and shared an image of a girl holding a certificate in her hands surrounded by her teachers or relatives.
According to the social media tributes, among the victims of the attack were also three men – Ali Muhammad Suleiman Abu Rizq, Hisham Abu Rida, and Ahmed Al-Ghouti. According to the Twitter/X post by @KareemQaddura, Hisham and Ahmed were also displaced from Northern Gaza.
The deaths of Ali Muhammad Suleiman Abu Rizq and Ahmed Al-Ghouti were mourned in many Facebook posts. A Facebook post by user Ali said “We count you among the martyrs before God. Beloved friend Ali Muhammad Abu Rizq”. From the attached image the late Ali Abu Rizq is seen as a middle-aged bearded man in a black t-shirt. A Facebook post by user Wesam featured an image of the dead body of Ali Muhammad wrapped in a white cloth stained with blood. Ahmed Al-Ghouti’s cousin Saaed shared an image of a young Ahmed Al-Ghouti where he was standing near a red car.
Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the strikes to Israeli forces. The exact time of the strike is unknown.
Airwars matched all the named victims with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of nearly 7000 victims’ names and ID numbers released on October 26th.
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 evening.
The victims were named as:
Family members (2)
The victims were named as:
Summary
Sources (44) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (27) [ collapse]
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Source: Ali -
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Source: Wesam -
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Source: Wesam -
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Source: Beso86press -
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Source: Beso86press -
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Source: Al-Sharq Palestine -
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Source: Al-Sharq Palestine -
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Source: Al-Sharq Palestine -
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Source: Saeed Al-Ghouti -
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Source: Mohamed Ahmed -
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Source: Hani Abu Mustafa -
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Source: Belal M. Alfaqawi -
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Source: Belal M. Alfaqawi -
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Source: Anwaa Al-Rahil -
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Source: Ali Hassan Kullab -
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Source: Nana Mohammed -
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Source: Ali Al-Qara Abu Omar -
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Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the vicinity of Ahmed Abdul Aziz School (مدرسة أحمد عبد العزيز) to the west of Khan Younis (خان يونس), for which the generic coordinates are: 31.339303, 34.306151. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.