In the evening of Tuesday, October 24th 2023, between six and ten civilians including four children and one woman were killed, and dozens were injured in an alleged Israeli airstrike that hit a bakery in the Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

In a post on Facebook, Saeed al-Asar stated that “planes bombed a bakery in Al-Maghazi camp, and there are 6 martyrs so far.” Later reporting from Shehab Agency and Al Jazeera mentioned seven killed “and a number of wounded” as a result of the alleged Israeli airstrike, with Al Jazeera sharing an image of rescue efforts. Al Quds news agency shared an image of the bakery before and after being destroyed by the alleged strike, while Al Jazeera posted a video with aerial drone footage of the rubble and destruction, with the caption “The extent of the massive destruction as a result of the Israeli bombing (on) a bakery in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, resulting in the death of 8 people.” Al Araby TV posted a video of crowds gathered around the rubble of the destroyed structure, and heavy damage can be seen to the buildings near it. The caption stated that there were “a number of deaths and injuries.”

Quds Press and Raya FM quoted the Government Media Office in Gaza, which announced the death of 10 individuals and the injury of dozens as a result of the alleged strike on “the only bakery of the Maghazi camp in central Gaza strip”, and that the bakery was “completely destroyed”, “a large hole was left in its place, in addition to the demolition of a number of houses surrounding the center of the camp.”

Raya FM shared an image of a lone man sitting in dejection among the rubble. Attributing the strike to Israeli forces, the head of the media office, Salama Maarouf, was quoted as saying the bakery had been “supplied with flour hours earlier from UNRWA” prior to the alleged bombing. Facebook user Ahmed Salmi shared an image of the destroyed structure saying “many innocent civilians were killed and wounded” in the alleged bombing.

Friends and relatives of those killed shared names of six of the victims on social media, which are as follows : 34-year-old Iman Abdul Rahman Younis Ali, her husband, 37-year-old Naeem Abdel Fattah Ali, and their sons, 15-year-old Saed Naeem Abdel Fattah Ali, six-year-old Ahmed Naeem Abdel Fattah Ali, 13-year-old Raed Naeem Abdel Fattah Ali, and 11-year-old Mohammad Naeem Abdel Fattah Ali.

Family members posted messages on social media expressing their grief, often accompanied by photos of the family. Aisha Abdel Rahman posted to Facebook saying “My dear sister, Iman, Saed’s mother, was a martyr, accompanied by her husband and their children, who died in the brutal bombing of Al-Maghazi bakery last night.”

Abu Shadi Wael Ali shared a photo of his cousin Naeem with three of his sons, the family smiling and celebrating a school milestone one of the children. Shadi Ali shared an playful image of Naeem striking a pose, a middle-aged, bearded man with a shaved head.

Aerial photographs shared by Gaza Days show the complete destruction of the bakery as well as extreme damage to the surrounding houses. Wattan News reported that the bakery was bombed “at a time when the demand for bread, the basic need for children to meet their needs, is increasing”, and that the bakery supplied bread to more than 80,000 people, and its destruction “puts them in a major dilemma in which the citizen cannot afford even a single loaf of bread.”  They noted that “one of the citizens in the camp donated two clay ovens in order to alleviate people’s suffering, especially after the power outage and the inability of bakeries to provide the fuel and gas necessary to operate the bakery or even for citizens to make bread in their homes.”

Where possible, names have been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of fatalities in Gaza released on October 26th, 2023.

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

The local time of the incident is unknown.