At 7 AM on Wednesday, 23rd October 2024, at least four civilians, including two identified Gazan municipality employees, and up to six civilians were killed and three others were injured when an alleged Israeli airstrike and/or artillery strike hit the vicinity of Bir al-Safa near Al-Durra Hospital, on Salah al-Din Street in the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City. The workers had reportedly already coordinated their location with the Israeli army prior to the attack.
At 8.30 am Safa News reported a number of deaths and injuries as a consequence of shelling which hit the Gaza municipality workers repairing water wells in the Al Tuffah neighbourhood. At 8.57 am the source then reported the death of four victims. Several other news outlets including Alaraby and Akhbar Al Yawm reported six deaths and a number of injuries. Five victims have been identified, two of whom were killed and three who were injured.
According to a press release issued by the Gaza Municipality, the attack happened at exactly 7 am, killing two municipal workers and injuring three others. The press release contained the names and ages of the victims. Gaza Municipality added that “it mourns its heroic martyrs, offers condolences to their families, and calls for a speedy recovery for the wounded and injured.”
The victims who had been killed in the incident were identified as 49-year-old Khaled Mohammed Kamel Meqat and 34-year-old Abed al-Ghafar Khader Abed al-Ghafar al-Jadba. A eulogy poster shared on social media reported the incident and mourned the death of the two workers who are depicted in profile photos on the poster. Abed is depicted as a middle-aged man wearing a blue suit and red tie while Khaled is depicted as an older man with grey hair and a mustache wearing a grey sweatshirt.
Friends and Family on social media mourned the death of the two workers. Facebook user Mohammed al Baja shared a photo depicting Khaled taking a selfie in front of a patch of cactus trees. The comment reads “I don’t know what to say except may God have mercy on you, my friend and brother.”
Facebook user Saeed Zomara shared a photo of Abed on social media as a middle-aged man wearing a dark brown jumper and blue jacket. He linked arms with a friend and smiled at the camera resting his arms on the shoulder of a smiling young boy. In the comment, Saeed speaks of his “great shock” at the death of his cousin and asks others to “please pray for him.”
Three of the injured victims were identified as: 52-year-old Munir Abdul Majeed Rizq Habib, 50-year-old Raed Mohammed Ismail Abu al-Kas, and 55-year-old Khaled Jabr Mohammed Harara.
In a video filmed by Hassan Salem and shared on multiple social media accounts, a crowd of women, men, and children huddled around one of the victim’s bodies now wrapped in white cloth. They mourned the death of the victim, crying and screaming, holding his body in their arms and kissing him farewell. One man is shown in particular distress lifting up the eyelids of his friend to check that he was not still alive.
Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the strikes to Israeli forces.