Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Shortly before 6am on Wednesday, October 18th 2023, the Al Mahatta Mosque, on Jaffa Street, in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood in the east of Gaza City was reportedly bombed by an Israeli Military drone strike. The Palestinian press agency Safa reported at 6:20 am local time that there were casualties as a result of the alleged drone raid. No other sources mentioned casualties, therefore the civilian harm status of this incident was recorded as weak and the number of civilians injured and killed as 1-2 to reflect local reporting.
Lebanese news agencies Al-Mayadeen and News L-B (@newslebanon2021) as well as Twitter/X user Siham-Haifa Daoud reported that the mosque was destroyed and caught on fire.
Other news agencies reported the incident including Al Jazeera Egypt, Wattan and Saudi news site Al-Marsd.
A Facebook user Walid Mosbah posted an image with the headline and a man standing on top of a large pile of scorched rubble. Similarly, Al Jazeera Egypt posted an image with the headline and a collapsed mosque dome. Neither source specifically claimed that the image was of Al Mahatta Mosque.
Where sources identified a belligerent, all sources attributed the strike to the Israeli Military.
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 at approximately 5:30 am local time.
Summary
Sources (10) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (2) [ collapse]
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Source: Walid Mosbah -
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Source: Al Jazeera Egypt
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the al Mahatta Mosque (مسجد المحطة) to the north of Gaza city (غزة), for which the generic coordinates are: 31.514075, 34.476052. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.