On Monday, November 20 2023, between five and 15 civilians, including at least two children, were killed, and between 12 and 25 civilians, including at least five children and an elderly man, were injured in a declared Israeli airstrike and/or artillery strike on a residential apartment in Hamad Town, west of Khan Yunis, in the Gaza strip.

Images posted of the alleged strike appeared to show an apartment on the fifth floor of a six-story block being destroyed.

Airwars has identified the names of five of the casualties. In a post, the Hamad Residential City Facebook page shared the names as – the children Selina Muhammad al-Rayes and her sister Siwar Muhammad al-Rayes, Alia Ahmed al-Rayes, her sister Raghad Ahmed al-Rayes, and Ismail Youssef al-Rayes.

Among those killed were the two young sisters, Selina Muhammad al-Rayes and Siwar Muhammad al-Rayes. In a series of heartbreaking Facebook posts, their father, Mohammed Rayyes, mourned that he had lost “the most beautiful, precious, and beloved blessings” in his life – his daughters, the “darlings of my heart”, and “the most beautiful thing my Lord has created” – and shared an image of him with his two daughters laughing. On December 31, 2023, Mohammed Rayyes dedicated two posts to each of his daughters. Sharing a picture of him carrying young Selina, he said, “Oh my soul, Selina, may God give me patience to leave you, father. The beloved of my soul and my life, I swear. The martyr, the soul of my heart, Selena.” In the other post, he shared a picture of him and Siwar, a small toddler with a radiant smile, and said, “The soul of the soul, the pulse, the passion, the love, and the beauty of the love Siwar. May God give me patience to leave you, my father’s heart, and soul. My martyr soul mate, my beloved love bracelet.” Mohammed Rayyes also shared videos of the children – one showed the two little girls laughing joyously with their father and playing with their toys, another showed little Siwar combing her fathers hair, and a final one showed the bodies of the two little children wrapped in white shrouds.

Anhar al-Rayes named his cousins, Alia Ahmed al-Rayes and Raghad Ahmed al-Rayes, as further casualties in the incident, and called Siwar and Selina as “Zizi’s daughters.” In the post, he asked, “May God accept them as martyrs and strengthen our hearts”, and termed the alleged attack as an “assassination of childhood on childhood day” – November 20th, the day of the alleged bombing, is celebrated as World Children’s Day.

Initial reportage from Shehab Agency stated that the bodies of three individuals killed and 12 injured had arrived at the Nasser Hospital following “an Israeli raid on Hamad Residential City in Khan Yunis”, with a later update to the death toll stating five were killed in the alleged bombing – this information was corroborated by Safa News, Quds Press and sources on social media. Quds further stated that children were among the casualties of the bombing, with Quds, Safa and other sources on social media sharing images of injured children being treated at Nasser Hospital, and other injured (including children and an elderly man) being carried into the hospital.

Anadolu Agency stated that according to local sources reporting to Wafa news agency, “Israeli warplanes fired dozens of missiles at the Hamad residential city, northwest of Khan Yunis, killing dozens of citizens, most of them children and women, and injuring others.” Twitter/X user @SamiaBelounis1 alleged that most of the casualties were “innocent children”, citing a death toll of eight “so far.” Similar claims were made by @rida_ehab, who alleged that most of the casualties were “children and infants” and shared an image of injured children being carried into Nasser Hospital. An image shared by @Bernadotte22 showed two infants being treated by healthcare workers, while a graphic video shared by @AhmedAbofoul showed a heavily injured infant being carried on a stretcher, with the caption “Several killed and injured, including children” in the alleged attack. Another video, shared by @HollowDreams0, showed injured civilians, including children, being carried into Nasser Hospital, and a heavily injured child being treated by medical workers. Twitter/X user @MilitaryPOV stated that there was a total of 15 killed and 25 injured as a result of the alleged bombing, sharing a video of a crowd gathering near the site of the reported strike, with emergency workers carrying the injured out of the area – @MuhammadSmiry corroborated the casualty figures, alleging that “this is the second apart in the same area.”

According to the Hamad Residential City Facebook Page, the fourth floor of Tower G3 was allegedly bombed – a video shared by the page showed the tower still standing but the floor destroyed. Images shared by Twitter/X user @PkSignofPeace showed the tower with the fourth floor and a part of the floor above it destroyed. Other videos shared by the Hamad Residential City page showed what was purportedly the aftermath of the strike, with dust covering the area in the darkness, emergency workers carrying the bodies of killed and/or heavily injured children, and ambulances rushing in amongst the screams and chaos, and a video of the injured being rushed into the hospital, including at least three children. Twitter/X user @msbnoun posted a video with the caption “This is the horrifying scenes coming out of Hamad City, west of Khan Yunis. No electricity, no disaster equipment to rescue the injured. This is absolutely heartbreaking to watch.”

Where possible, names have been reconciled with published Palestinian Ministry of Health lists. With thanks to journalist Alexandre Horn from CheckNews for identifying relevant sources, and Data Tech for Palestine for centralising the datasets.

Airwars’ geolocation team was able geolocate the site of the strike, matching images shared by Twitter/X user @PkSignofPeace to coordinates on a map. Airwars is also systematically reviewing strike footage and statements shared by the Israeli military to it’s social media accounts. The day after this strike, on November 21, 2023, the Israeli military posted a kind of ’round-up’ of it’s recent activities to its English-language Telegram account. Included in the post was a link to ‘video footage of the strikes in the Gaza Strip’. Reviewing this footage, Airwars was able to match a strike depicted at 0:28 to the residential building in Hamad where this incident occurred. As such, this incident has been recorded as ‘declared’.