Civilian Casualties

Civilian Casualties

Incident Code

ISPT0518

Incident date

October 23, 2023

Location

حيّ الصعيدي، رفح, Saudi neighborhood, Rafah, Rafah, the Gaza Strip

Geolocation

31.315564, 34.238917 Note: The accuracy of this location is to Neighbourhood/area level. Continue to map

Airwars assessment

On October 23th 2023, the family home of the Abu Senima family, located in the Saudi neighborhood west of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, was hit by an alleged Israeli airstrike, killing a young boy named Mohamed Abu Sunima.

Mohamed Abu Senima, according to various Facebook posts, was a football player for the Palestinian Score Academy. In a post made on Facebook by @Abou Seddick he stated “May God have mercy on him, forgive him, dwell him in spacious gardens, and give his family patience and solace” along with an image of Mohamed, who looks to have been under the age of 18. A post from Muhammad Sidr stated that Mohamed’s brother Mahmoud had been killed the day before.

No information was available about additional victims of the attack.

Airwars was not able to match Mohamed Abu Sunima’s name with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of names, October 26th 2023.

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

The local time of the incident is unknown.

The victims were named as:

Mohamed Abu Sunima محمد أبو سنيمة
Child male killed

Geolocation notes

Reports of the incident mention the Saudi neighborhood (حيّ الصعيدي) to the west of Rafah (رفح), for which the generic coordinates are: 31.315564, 34.238917. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.

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Summary

  • Strike status
    Likely strike
  • Strike type
    Airstrike
  • Infrastructure
    Residential
  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    1
  • (1 child)
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Fair
    Reported by two or more credible sources, with likely or confirmed near actions by a belligerent.
  • Suspected belligerent
    Israeli Military

Sources (19) [ collapse]

Media
from sources (2) [ collapse]

  • This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.

    Source: Abou seddik
  • This media contains graphic content. Click to unblur.

    Source: Rafah service official page

Israeli Military Assessment:

  • Suspected belligerent
    Israeli Military
  • Israeli Military position on incident
    Not yet assessed

Summary

  • Strike status
    Likely strike
  • Strike type
    Airstrike
  • Infrastructure
    Residential
  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    1
  • (1 child)
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Fair
    Reported by two or more credible sources, with likely or confirmed near actions by a belligerent.
  • Suspected belligerent
    Israeli Military

Sources (19) [ collapse]