Shortly before 8:31 p.m. on Friday, 3rd November 2023, at least 20 and as many as 63 civilians were killed and dozens of others, including at least three children, were wounded in an alleged Israeli airstrike which hit the UNRWA-affiliated Osama Bin Zaid Boys School sheltering hundreds of displaced people, most of them women and children, in the Al-Saftawi area, north of Gaza City.  Airwars researchers identified the names of the eight civilians killed, including two women and three children.

Local sources and family and friends provided the names of eight people who were killed and three people who were injured in the attack on Osama Bin Zaid School. 48-year-old Sami Mustafa Al-Araj (Abu Muhand) was killed alongside his 40-year-old wife Faten Saeed Al-Araj (Umm Muhand), and their five sons  – 18-year-old Mustafa Sami Al-Araj, 17-year-old Mahmoud Sami Al-Araj, 13-year-old Hamid Sami Al-Araj, 22-year-old Muhammad Sami Al-Araj, and 15-year-old Musab Sami Al-Araj. Faten’s nephew, 19-year-old Muhammad Shaaban Al-Araj, was also among the victims.

Where possible, the names of the victims have been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) lists, which include national ID numbers. Since October 26, 2023, the MoH has released a number of lists, along with an additional list of medical professionals, which was released on September 17, 2024. Airwars is matching individuals to the first list where their name appeared. In regard to this incident, names are matched to the third “Palestinian Ministry of Health List of Fatalities in Gaza”, which was released on April 1, 2024.

Also among the killed was a woman, Basma Abu Karsh (Umm Ahmed Shaheen) (age unavailable), who was related to Abu Ahmed Saheen and his sons Bassam and Mahmoud, who were all injured during the attack. No specifics about the identity of the other casualties were reported.

Death and injury toll

The exact number of casualties varied among sources. While Baha Breaking News, AFP News and the @ShehabAgency reported about at least 20 killed people, @M0ATH reported about the death of 20-30 people. Other sources, including Fatima Abdallah and Safa PS, reported the death of 50 people, while Elwatan News and Siham-Haida Daoud stated that 62 people had died. Facebook users Siham-Haifa Daoud and the Al-Sukhni clan in Syria reported the highest death toll of 63 people.

While several sources mentioned injuries, the exact number remains unclear. Many sources referenced multiple injuries without providing specifics; however, the Al-Sukhni clan in Syria spoke on Facebook about many injuries, while @ShehabAgency mentioned “dozens of injuries.” Different sources, including Al Jazeera and Almayadeen, wrote that many injured were brought to the Indonesian hospital. Only the identities of the three injured persons mentioned above are known to Airwars.

The incident was covered by several news outlets, including AFP, Al Jazeera, WAFA, as well as individual local sources. According to several sources, including @ShehabAgency and Twitter/X user @Osa963, the school offered shelter to hundreds of displaced people at the time of the attack. Sahar Abdo shared on Facebook that mostly children and women sought shelter in the building, and AFP reported that shortly after the attack, a row of washing was still hung from the windows, indicating the school’s use as a shelter. The school, which, according to several sources, was affiliated with UNRWA, had been hit following the bombing of three hospitals, as reported by Twitter/X users Mohammed Haniya and Alzwahy R.

A picture shared several times on social media accounts showed the school’s blood-stained walls and ceiling after the attack. Twitter/X user @Military_OSTX shared next to this also a picture of a pool of blood and a letter written with blood saying “Gaza Resists” in Arabic.

Dramatic pictures, among others, posted by Education and awareness and Wahid Abu Raad Facebook accounts, showed dead people wrapped in shrouds lying on the floor, as well as several killed children and adults covered in blood amidst the debris. Pictures shared by WAFA News Agency showed rescue teams and civilians trying to recover dead and injured people from the Debris-littered building and transporting the wounded in an ambulance.

Video evidence

Videos and pictures were shared online, showing the horror and destruction after the attack. Many posts of videos included warnings about the horrific and cruel nature of the content, stating that they show “painful scenes that break hearts and exceed human endurance” and are “very difficult and horrific.” Many sources write that the attack turned “the bodies of the displaced people into pieces.”

According to Al Watan news, a touching video clip, no longer than 45 seconds, documented by Palestinian journalist Hamza Hammad, showed people screaming while collecting body parts from inside the school classrooms. One of them was holding the shoe of one of the martyrs, shouting: “This blue slipper belongs to one of my family members,” while another cried, saying: “My family members are gone, the enemy killed them, oh God. Where are you, my beloved ones?” This video was shared by social media users but was not published by the media outlet because of its offensive nature.

Another graphic video shared by Twitter/X user @mohammedhaniya showed civil defence volunteers frantically running into the hospital carrying stretchers, where a teenager with a heavy abdomen wound was lying. Later, they checked his pulse to see if he was still alive. The video also showed a girl with a head wound with blood blinding her eyes, and a volunteer running and carrying the body of a small, injured boy in his arms. The narrator said that there was a new massacre in northern Gaza, in the al-Saftawi area, and these injured people were brought from that place.

A video shared by the Shehab Agency on Twitter/X showed an injured bearded man whose blue T-shirt was stained with large blood stains and who was asked by a doctor and a paramedic whether there were many injuries in the school. The man confirmed that, indeed, there were many injuries, including children and women, and that he was staying inside the school, in the schoolyard, while the strike hit the school directly.

Another video shared by the Shehab Agency on Twitter/X featured the journalist Anas al-Sharif reporting from the place of the incident. He talked about the extent of the destruction and the large number of martyrs in the bombing of Osama bin Zaid School and showed scenes of body parts and blood on the walls. He also confirmed that all the victims were displaced people who had come to seek refuge in the school. A lot of onlookers were crowded behind him, shouting, “Where are the Muslims? Where are Arabs?”

User @M0ATH posted another video with a journalist, Anas al-Sharif, reporting from the school: “We are now in front of Osama Bin Zaid School, in the northern Gaza Strip. The occupation has committed a new massacre against the displaced people here. A large number of martyrs and injured. As you can see, here are the body parts, these torn bodies in this place.” A teenager was emotionally telling the reporter about the death of his cousins: “We were sleeping, all my cousins were sleeping, then the missile hit. Now they’re all in pieces… those are my cousins.”

Two very graphic videos shared by @eng_alaa_halisi on Twitter/X showed the body parts of the victims. A man in the second video was shouting: ” My whole family is gone, oh God, two brothers...”

Social media tributes 

Family members and friends took to social media to mourn the deceased, sharing pictures and tributes. Mahmoud Bakr Abu Jandal mourned the loss of Hajjah Umm Ahmed Shaheen (Basma Abu Karsh), the mother of his wife, sharing a picture of her, a middle-aged woman dressed in pink and purple attire and gently smiling at a camera, and writing, “A thousand mercies and light descend upon your pure soul.” He also wishes a quick recovery to his uncle Abu Ahmed and his sons Bassam and Mahmoud, who have been injured during the attack.

Other family members of Hajjah, including her grandchild, shared their thoughts on Facebook, writing, “May God give my mother patience to bear your loss, my lady, and May He give us all patience.” The grandchild also shared a picture of the middle-aged smiling woman wearing a pink and purple hijab. Amir Magdy expressed his grief on Facebook, mourning the loss of his family member, Mustafa Sami Al-Araj, and posting a video showing the funeral ceremony around his body wrapped in a white cloth, where men were singing religious hymns and praying to Allah. This video was widely circulated on social media with a note that “the smell of musk was emanating from him.”

Strike attribution

When sources identified a belligerent, the attack was attributed to the Israeli military. Twitter/X user @osa963 directly attributed the attack, reporting about the “Israeli bombardment”, and @TRTArabi similarly speaks about “Israel targeting.” This was further confirmed by WAFA News, stating that “Local sources revealed that the occupation directly targeted the school.”

Sources diverged on the exact nature of the attack. While WAFA news and the Club de l’ingénieur Tunisien Mécanique, Energétique et Industriel reported on Facebook that the incident was the result of an attack by Israeli warplanes, AFP News reported that Hamas authorities claimed that it was “Israeli tank shelling that killed 20 people.” Most sources did not provide specifics, reporting more generally about the “bombing” or “bombardment” of the school. Facebook user Abd El Rahim Badri further reported about the use of chemical weapons; however, it was the only source referring to those types of weapons. All sources that referred to the incident’s location reported that the school was in the al-Saftawy area in the north of Gaza City.

The exact local time of the incident is unknown. However, Shehab Agency reported on the incident in its Twitter/X account at 20:31, citing medical sources, Safa.ps posted at 20:49 about the incident, and Facebook user Siham-Haifa Daoud described that the incident happened around nine o’clock in the evening. Other sources, including Al Jazeera and WAFA News, correspondingly reported that the attack occurred on Friday night.

On January 12, 2024, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) shared a post to their official Telegram account, writing that “During an aerial intelligence gathering mission by the 100th Squadron, Hamas was identified firing from a school and a mosque in the Gaza Strip, and the launchers in the area were neutralized.” Though the military did not name the school, they included a link which showed the school, captured from the perspective of a drone – matching this incident’s geolocation. In the video, small plumes of smoke appear to come from the school or it’s near vicinity, potentially indicating rockets launching. The video progresses, including clips from a number of strikes. As the video does not show the alleged strike on the school, coupled with the fact that the clip itself isn’t dated the strike status for this incident remains ‘likely’. Additionally, open sources did not indicate militant presence at the school during the time of the strike, and Airwars did not find indication that any militants were killed, the civilian harm status connected to this incident remains ‘fair’. This will be updated should additional information become available.