At dawn on Thursday, October 19th 2023, an alleged Israeli airstrike on the Abu Daqqa family house located in the town of Abasan al-Kabira in the Khan Yunis governorate in the Gaza Strip killed an eight-year old boy named Hamza Bashar Jamil (Abu Daqqa).

Shehab Agency initially reported about the serious injury of Hamza Jamil, but later relatives mourned his death in social media tributes. Hamza’s father’s cousin, A. Mohammad Abu Daqqa Abu Mahmoud, posted on Facebook that the family house was completely destroyed, having posted an image of the rubble left from the building.

Hamza Bashar Abu Daqqa was mentioned in tributes by his family members as “the Memorizer of the Book of God” which means that he learned the Koran by heart. His aunt Rasha Alnajjar wrote a touching testimony to his nephew: “My dear, Hamza Bashar, I was talking about you as a leader, and you turned out to be a leader in every way. Brave, intelligent, and this is what I sensed since your childhood. It is enough that you have won the world and memorized the Book of God. And in the hereafter, you will rise as a martyr.”

Another relative, Houria Dehiba wrote in a heartfelt Facebook post: “They killed you and your dreams and the dreams of your mother.”

Hamza Bashar appears in the images shared on Facebook by his relatives as a smiling young boy in diverse locations, including one picture in a traditional attire.

Airwars has matched Hamza Bashar Jamil (Abu Daqqa)’s name to the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of fatalities in Gaza released on October 26th, 2023

Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the strikes to Israeli forces.