Geolocation
Airwars assessment
During the morning of Saturday, November 4th 2023, between 12 and 15 people, including at least six children, were killed and between 54 and 70, including at least four children and one woman, were wounded in an alleged Israeli airstrike on the UNRWA-administered Al Fakhoura School in the Jabalia Refugee Camp in northern Gaza. Sources say that thousands of displaced people were sheltering at the school at the time of the incident, many of them women and children.
On the day of the alleged bombing, Shehab Agency and Al Jazeera quoted the Spokesperson for the Ministry of Health in Gaza who stated “12 martyrs and more than 54 wounded so far as a result” of the alleged bombing on the al-Fakhoura school. Al Jazeera reported that “an Israeli air missile struck the al-Fakhoura school run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in the Jabalia refugee camp, killing at least 15 people and injuring 54, according to the Palestinian health ministry. “The number [of deaths] is expected to rise,” said Muhammad Abu Silmeyeh, director of al-Shifa Hospital.” According to Daily Sabah, Palestinian Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told Anadolu Agency that “an Israeli airstrike (struck) a school serving as a shelter for Palestinian refugees in Jabalia, resulting in 15 deaths and 70 injuries.”
According to Al Jazeera, this was the third major attack on Jabalia camp (Gaza’s largest refugee camp) that week, and came hours after “a deadly strike on the Osama bin Zaid school sheltering (thousands of) displaced families in the al-Saftawi area north of Gaza City.” A witness who spoke to Al Jazeera claimed that four people in their family were killed or injured in the alleged bombing, and was quoted as saying “We have nothing to do with anything related to the Hamas movement. The room only had children and women.” In a Twitter/X post, Egyptian parliamentarian Mostafa Bakry alleged that Israeli forces “did not differentiate, killing mercilessly, the sick, schoolchildren, children, women and the elderly. Daily massacres, corpses dumped in the streets, body parts being collected in the coldest of times, hunger, darkness, and a shortage of medicine.”
Drawing attention to the history of strikes on the al-Fakhoura School, Twitter/X user, @yasser_gaza, shared a photo from January 31, 2009, explaining, “In this photo, the martyr friend Ihab Ayoub appears sitting in the first seat, and next to him is a paper on which is written the name of our martyr friend “Ahed Qadas,” who was martyred with his colleagues in the #Al-Fakhoura_School massacre in 2009. Today, the [Israeli forces] committed a new massacre against the displaced people in our school, and Ihab was martyred yesterday.”
Various sources shared photos and videos of the aftermath of the attack online. A series of images posted by Shehab Agency showed the aftermath of the reported strike, people grieving, and various injured being treated at the Indonesian Hospital, including a small child, with captions alleging that Israeli forces committed a “massacre at al-Fakhoura school.”
In a video by Al Jazeera, a child tells the camera “I was standing here when three bombings happened. I carried a body with my own hands, and I carried another headless body with my own hands” as he breaks down sobbing. On Facebook, The Eye of Palestine shared a graphic photo of the bodies of six small children laid out on the floor, alleging that they were killed in the Israeli airstrike. Facebook user, Anas al-Sharif, posted photos of the “damages and injuries in the shelling of the occupation of al-Israa Al Fakhoura School in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, Gaza.” These images taken in the courtyard of the school show scattered food and personal belongings, as well as multiple casualties.
On Twitter/X, @Roaastudies shared a video showing grieving individuals and numerous injured victims of the strike, including a child, who had been taken to a health facility. @EekadFacts shared a video of a journalist in a press vest showing bread stained with blood reportedly from the victims of the alleged bombing, while Orient News shared a video of a woman crying, clutching an infant, saying “Where is humanity and the Arab countries?” – it is unclear whether the child was killed or injured. Videos shared by Al Jazeera showed two injured children and an injured woman being rushed from an ambulance to the hospital, and a mourning mother bidding farewell to her killed son, saying “oh my beloved you are the fruit of my heart.”
Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the strike to Israeli forces.
The incident occured in the morning.
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the vicinity of the Al Fakhoura School (مدرسة الفاخورة) in the Jablia Refugee Camp (مخيم جباليا), for which the generic coordinates are: 31.542307, 34.495157. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (20) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (29) [ collapse]
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Source: @ShehabAgency -
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Source: @ShehabAgency -
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Source: @ShehabAgency -
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Source: @ShehabAgency -
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Source: @ShehabAgency -
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Source: @ShehabAgency -
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Source: @ShehabAgency -
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Source: @ShehabAgency -
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Source: @Yasser_Gaza -
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Source: Anas Al Sharif -
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Source: Anas Al Sharif -
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Source: Anas Al Sharif -
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Source: Anas Al Sharif -
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Source: Anas Al Sharif -
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Source: Anas Al Sharif -
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Source: Anas Al Sharif -
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Source: Anas Al Sharif -
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Source: Anas Al Sharif -
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Source: Anas Al Sharif -
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Source: The Eye Of Palestine -
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