At least two people were killed and many more, including women and children, were reportedly injured on October 17th or 18th 2023, when the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Mosque near the Ain Jalut towers in the Nuseirat camp, in the central Gaza Strip, was allegedly bombed by an Israeli military aircraft.

Al Quds News Agency reported that the incident had resulted in two deaths and others had been injured. Hespress news agency also reported in a Facebook post that two people were killed and others were injured in the incident. Neither source identified these victims.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that the incident had resulted in a large number of deaths and injuries and that their correspondent reported dozens of victims who had been injured or killed arriving at the hospital, adding that they were displaced, had fled to the mosque to seek shelter and that most of the victims were women and children.

Likewise, Al Watan news agency reported that the incident had resulted in dozens of deaths and injuries.

Hespress reported that the press office of the Palestinian Ministry of the Interior released a brief statement confirming the incident and that there had been deaths and injuries. The statement did not specify how many victims were killed and injured.

Al Quds quoted a medical source saying that the bombing had killed and injured Palestinians and had “caused widespread destruction in the area, and medical teams are still working to transfer the injured from nearby homes.” The source did not specify how many had been killed or injured.

Given references to ‘large numbers’ and ‘dozens’ of casualties, Airwars has used a 12-24 range in the injury fields and 2-2 in the fatalities range, due to the specific mention of two fatalities, in line with our methodology.

The Al Quds news article, published on October 18, 2023, mentioned the incident occurring on Tuesday but Hespress referred to the incident happening on Wednesday and there were no available sources published or posted prior to Wednesday, October 18, 2023.

A Twitter/X channel by the handle @aa_arabic posted a slideshow showing images of a large area of burnt rubble and vehicles, fire engines on the scene and both volunteers and civil defence teams searching through the rubble.

A video posted by Shorouk News on Twitter/X showed the scale of the destruction, with large craters, piles of rubble and twisted metal, fires still burning in a few places and buildings on the edge of the site being partially destroyed as well.

Al Jazeera, Palestine Media and a Facebook user named Samiha Salama reported that the bomb was dropped by an Israeli military aircraft and Al Jazeera posted a video on Facebook showing the site with a group of people, including children, running towards it and others walking around the rubble and debris.

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 local time of the incident is unknown.