At approximately 7:30pm on Wednesday, October 18th 2023, a home sheltering the Musa family on Abu Arif Street in Deir al-Balah collapsed due to alleged Israeli airstrikes, killing between eight and more than 30 people. 65-year old Hiam Musa was, at the time of writing, the only person to be named as having been killed in this attack. Hiam Musa was the sister-in-law of Associated Press photojournalist Adel Hana.

This incident gained global attention as PBS news reported that the Musa family had fled from Northern Gaza to the town of Deir al-Balah, sheltering in a cousin’s three-storey home, when airstrikes caused the home to collapse. PBS reported that 20 people were buried in the rubble of the building and that the Musa family did not know how many or who else remained under the rubble, though it was believed the majority of those buried were women and children. At the time of the airstrikes, the IDF had encouraged people to move South, as the Musa family had done, to access safe zones from the IDF’s ongoing military campaign. Adel Hana spoke to the frustration and pain the family suffered after believing they had reached safety: “It doesn’t make sense.  We went to Deir al-Balah because it’s quiet, we thought we would be safe.”

Though multiple airstrikes were reported, it is unknown how many occurred. The Israeli military said it was investigating the incident, as reported by PBS News, though there has been no official confirmation of civilian harm. According to a post from Nabeel Musa, the strike occurred in the vicinity of Al-Salam Mosque.

Posts on Twitter/X initially reported that eight bodies had been recovered from the rubble, but @dj_yoBraz claimed that  20 “children and women” were killed in the attack, with user @SarahHa909 posting on Twitter/X that over 30 people were killed.

Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the strike to the Israeli military.

Hiam Musa’s name has been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of fatalities in Gaza released on October 26th, 2023

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 7:30 pm local time.