Geolocation
Airwars assessment
On October 21, 2023, a 49 year-old man named Basil Hassan Kamel Abu Shamala, also known as Abu Hassan, was killed by an alleged Israeli bombing near Al Derawi Mosque in Deir Al Balah, Gaza Strip. That day, his daughter, Bushra, confirmed his death on Facebook.
Many of Abu Shamala’s relatives mourned his death in posts on social media. One relative, Ismail, wrote that “the eyes shed tears and the heart grieves, and we are saddened by your departure, uncle.” Ismail also shared a tribute video and photo of Basil Hassan Kamel Abu Shamala from before his death and another family member, Ahmad, shared a photo of Basil posing in a garden.
Another relative, Hassan, re-posted a video from March, 2023, of himself smiling and walking with Basil, along with a caption announcing his death. The caption of the original video said “#My father.. Every year you are the love that #lights our way, #and the support with that strengthens us in the hardships of life…”
Offering his regards to some of Abu Shamala’s surviving family members, nephew Mahmod wrote: “May God have mercy on you, my uncle Abu Hassan. My condolences to my aunt, her children, and my cousins.”
While the majority of sources did not specify any belligerents responsible for this incident, Airwars has matched the name of the civilian killed with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of fatalities in Gaza released on October 26th, 2023, which explicitly mentions that names on the list are “victims of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip”. Therefore this incident has been given the strike status of a single source claim.
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.
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the vicinity of Al Derawi mosque (مسجد الديراوي), within the town of Deir Al Balah (دير البلح), for which the generic coordinates are: 31.417677, 34.355755. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (11) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (5) [ collapse]
-
This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.
Source: Ahmad -
This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.
Source: Mahmod -
This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.
Source: Ismail -
This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.
-
This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.