Geolocation
Airwars assessment
On Wednesday, October 18th 2023, at least two civilians, a 40 year-old writer and a 16 year-old child, were killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike and/or artillery strike on al-Awda Towers, a residential building north of Beit Lahia, Gaza strip.
At 6:21 in the morning, Safa news reported “violent Israeli bombardment in al-Awda Towers, north of Beit Lahia.” Sources on local and social media including Baghdad Today, Shorouk News and Swaed Gaza News stated that the first tower of the two al-Awda towers had been destroyed in the alleged bombing, with Facebook user QO Sai posting that there were “reports of two martyrs”.
Mohammad Abu Albara listed Hazem Fareed Sabeih (40) as one of the civilians killed, saying “I offer my condolences myself, my family, and the Sobeih family with the martyrdom of my cousin, the martyr, beloved relative, and writer: Hazem Sabeih Abu Muhammad”, adding that he was a resident of al–Awda towers. Facebook user Waleed M. Asead also mourned the death of Yahya al-Majdoub (16), reportedly the second victim of the alleged bombing.
Hazem Fareed Sabeih was mourned by many of his relatives, friends and neighbours, who described him as “beloved,” “smiling,” and “heroic,” sharing images of him with children and other loved ones, always pictured with a radiant smile. Mahmoud Hussneih Madi described him as “the one dear to all our hearts in the al-Awda Towers” and Omar Subeih posted, “The eyes will shed tears and the heart will grieve, and we are saddened by your absence/The martyrdom of my beloved brother Hazem Farid Sobeih “Abu Muhammad”/To God’s mercy, my beloved, and by God, my brother, parting with you is difficult.” Other relatives described how deeply he would be missed, and posted photos of him with his loved ones to their social media pages.
Airwars has matched both of the names of both of the civilians killed with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of fatalities in Gaza released on October 26th, 2023.
When sources identified a belligerent, all sources attributed the strike 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 around dawn.
The victims were named as:
Summary
Sources (25) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (1) [ collapse]
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Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention an alleged strike on al Awda Towers (أبراج العودة) to the west of Beit Hanoun (بيت حانون), for which the generic coordinates are: 31.546701, 34.519015. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.