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Airwars Assessment
At dawn on Tuesday, October 24, 2023, nine civilians were reportedly killed, including five children, three women and one man, and 10 others were injured, as a result of an alleged Israeli airstrike on the Al-Abadla family home in the Al Qarara area, north of Khan Younis, in the central Gaza Strip. Many sources including Al-Buruj Al Buruj, Samarah Shihabi, @abbaschamsuddin and Thaer Alhasani post reported that 10 people had been killed and reported the names of the victims, one of whom was a militant.
The militant killed was identified as Muhammad Fayez al-Hassani (Abu Mohammed), a military commander in the Al-Quds Brigades – the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist organisation Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The civilians killed included his al-Hassani’s wife, 29-year-old Zahraa Hazem al-Abadla, and their daughters – 8-year-old Batoul Muhammad Fayez al-Hassani and 1-year-old Yara Muhammad Fayez al-Hassani. The two sisters of Muhammad Fayez al-Hassani were also reportedly killed, 19-year-old Rand Fayez al-Hassani and 25-year-old Rawand Fayez al-Hassani, along with Rawand Fayez al-Hassani’s family, including her husband Muhammad al-Atl (possibly aged 31), their two sons four-year-old Hammam Muhammad al-Atl and Aws Muhammad al-Atl, who was an infant less than a year old, and their two-year-old daughter Ward Muhammad al-Atl.
A relative of Zahraa’s called Afaf Khalid Alagha reported that three individuals referred to as “Omar, Ahmed and their uncle” were injured in the incident. Based on this description, Omar and Ahmed were assumed to be children by Airwars. This will be updated if more details come to light regarding their age.
Rafah Service reported that 10 victims were transported to Nasser Hospital. Multiple other sources also reported that 10 victims had been recovered but missing people continued to be searched for under the rubble of the destroyed house.
Friends and relatives posted heartfelt tributes to the victims on social media, alongside images of them from before the incident. Mohammad al-Attar al-Obodi, in a tribute post on Facebook, reported that Mohammed Fayez al-Hassani was a journalist. Many posts mourned two-year-old Ward, including images of the smiling toddler and remembering her birthday several months prior, full of “moments of joy.”
The house reportedly belonged to Hazem al-Abadla, also known as Abu Mohammed.
@AMIRA_DAH posted images on Twitter/X reportedly showing the destruction of the house of the al-Abadla family, and stated that 10 civilians had been injured to varying degrees while the Palestinian Press Agency reported “no injuries”. Al-Qarara Pulse posted images on Facebook showing civilians, Civil Defense and medical personnel removing victims from the sandy rubble and carrying them into an ambulance.
The names of all identified victims have been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of nearly 7000 victims’ names and ID numbers released on October 26, 2023.
When sources identified a belligerent, they attributed the strike to Israeli forces.
Assessment Updates
Victims
Family members (9)
Family members (3)
Geolocation Notes
Reports of the incident mention the town of Al Qarara (القرارة), for which the generic coordinates are: 31.371329, 34.335281. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.