Geolocation
Airwars assessment
In the evening of Thursday, October 19, 2023, at least 13 civilian members of the al-Attar family, including a woman and seven children, and up to dozens of other civilians were reportedly killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike on the al-Attar family home located in the al-Bassa neighborhood in the city of Deir al Balah in the central Gaza Strip. Many civilians, most of them children, were reportedly wounded in the strike.
Al-Manara Media reported that there were “martyrs and a number of wounded” as a result of the bombing which destroyed the al-Attar family house, while Safa Agency stated that “dozens of people were martyred.” A Facebook user Mahmoud Fouly reported that “many martyrs and injuries have been recovered”. The State of Palestine Ministry of Foreign Affairs shared a video of rescue efforts from the rubble of the destroyed building. Palestinian Refugees Gates shared the images of the same.
Mahmoud Fouly and Safa Agency shared numerous disturbing images of the injured children, including infants, being carried from ambulances to hospitals, and some of them being treated by medical staff. Palestine pediatric patients service page posted very graphic pictures of the seven dead children whose bodies were wrapped in white cloth.
Radwani Younis included a video of funeral prayers for the Al-Attar family members that were conducted near the ambulances carrying their bodies, saying, “Due to the large number of martyrs and the intensity of the raids, the people of Gaza performed the funeral prayer for 13 members of the Palestinian Al-Attar family, including 7 children, in ambulances.”
Social media tributes helped Airwars to identify some of the victims of the deadly strike. Loay Mutair offered his condolences to “my wife and my uncle’s family over the martyrdom of their son Aed Ismail al-Najjar (Abu Yahya), his three children, his wife and her family in the Dar al-Attar massacre in Deir al-Balah.” Another of Aed’s brothers, Haneen Najjar, included the names of Aed’s children – his daughters Maria al-Najjar and Judy al-Najjar, and his son Yahya al-Najjar – as well as Aed’s wife, Rania al-Najjar. Ahed Abo Hatab and Loay Mutair shared the pictures of the children of the deceased Aed. Airwars believes that the post likely misspelled Judy (جودي) , as the name released by the Palestinian health ministry was Jouri (جوري) – only one letter different.
Aed’s brother Bilal mourned the deaths saying, “Our consolation is in you, my beloved, that you are a bird roaming and frolicking in gardens and rivers in a seat of truth in the presence of a powerful King”, adding that they were the “family of Hajj educator Abu Rami al-Attar”. He also added that Aed liked to be called “Engineer Yahya.” According to his pictures in a graduation mantle on the social media, Aed was a graduate of Al-Aqsa university.
A Facebook user Osama described the late Aed as “brother, friend, beloved, kind, decent and well-reputed.” Many of his images were posted on social media by family and friends where he can be seen as a young bearded man with his children or alone. Rami Yazici shared a striking image where he was kissing on the forehead the dead body of Aed on a hospital bed.
Airwars was only able to reconcile one name with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of names up to October 26th 2023.
Where sources identified the belligerents, 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 in the evening.
The victims were named as:
Family members (5)
Summary
Sources (23) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (51) [ collapse]
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Source: Mahmoud Gaber -
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Source: Mahmoud Gaber -
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Source: Mahmoud Gaber -
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Source: Mahmoud Gaber -
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Source: Mahmoud Fouly -
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Source: Mohammed A Abufardah -
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Source: Safa Agency -
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Source: Safa Agency -
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Source: Safa Agency -
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Source: Safa Agency -
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Source: Safa Agency -
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Source: Safa Agency -
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Source: Safa Agency -
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Source: Safa Agency -
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Source: Haneen Najjar -
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Source: Ahed Abo Hatab -
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Source: Ahed Abo Hatab -
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Source: Ahmad Abu Yaser -
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Source: Ahmad Abu Yaser -
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Source: Ahmad Abu Yaser -
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Source: Ahmad Abu Yaser -
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Source: Ahmad Abu Yaser -
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Source: Ahmad Abu Yaser -
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Source: Ahmad Abu Yaser -
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Source: Ahmad Abu Yaser -
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Source: Ahmad Abu Yaser -
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Source: Ahmad Abu Yaser -
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Source: Osama -
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Source: Rami Yazici -
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Source: Loay Mutair -
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Source: Loay Mutair -
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Source: Bilal Alnajjar -
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Source: Palestine pediatric patients service page -
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Source: Palestine pediatric patients service page -
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Source: Palestine pediatric patients service page -
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Source: Palestine pediatric patients service page -
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Source: Palestine pediatric patients service page -
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Source: Palestine pediatric patients service page -
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Source: Palestine pediatric patients service page -
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Source: Palestine pediatric patients service page -
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Source: Palestinian Refugees Gates -
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Source: Palestinian Refugees Gates -
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Source: Palestinian Refugees Gates -
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Source: Palestinian Refugees Gates -
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Source: Palestinian Refugees Gates -
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Source: Bilal Alnajjar -
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Geolocation notes (3) [ collapse]
Reports of the incident mention the neighbourhood of Al Bassa (الباسة) in the city of Deir al Balah (دير البلح). Analysing audio-visual material from sources, we have narrowed the location down to the following exact coordinates: 31.426959, 34.349396.