Airwars assessment
On Wednesday, July 24th, 2024 or Thursday July 25th, a family of four, including two children and a pregnant woman, were killed in an alleged Israeli strike on the Abu Jazar family house in Kaf Musbah-Miraje, Rafah, Gaza Strip.
Youssef Rashad Abu Jazar was reported to be killed, along with his wife Manal Ahmed Abu Jazar, their unborn child and two sons, 2-year-old Ahmed Youssef Abu Jazar and 3-year-old Rashad Youssef Abu Jazar.
According to Muhib Abu [Jazar], Manal was nine months pregnant at the time of the airstrike. Hanadi Jouda posted an elegy for her daughter Manal, writing “How can my eyes see your picture without overflowing with tears until my death…How can I look at the sky again without longing to see you even in imagination, my soul. I love you.” Hanadi detailed that she had lost her three children, Rashad, Ahmed, and Bilal – she is likely referring to Manal’s unborn child as Bilal. Accompanying the post is a picture of Manal in a blue headscarf smiling into the camera with one of her sons holding an action-man toy.
It is likely that Youssef Rashad Abu Jazar was initially injured due to the strike and then later died of his injuries. Hassan Bin Mohammed Al-Maani described in an initial post that his cousin Youssef Rashad Youssef Abu Jazar had lost his family in the airstrike, and praying Youssef had a speedy recovery. This was also supported by other posts which discuss that initially there were only three deaths, the two children Ahmed Yousef Abu Jazar and Rashad Yousef Abu Jazar, and their mother. However, in the post by Hassan Aslih, the mother of the two boys is called Israa Abu Jazar.
Alaa Abu Mohammed, sister of Youssef, posted a picture of the two young boys, Ahmed and Rashad, being pushed in children’s swings. The same picture was shared by Ahmed Khader, and without a filter over the top of the picture it’s clear that Youssef Rashad Abu Jazar is happily pushing his two sons on the swing.
Yasser Youssef posted that Youssef was a Rafah youth player and veteran player in the “sports movement,” referring to him as Captain, it seems Youssef played as a Rafah youth and veteran player. According to Farid Al-Khatib, Youssef was “a former player of Shabab Rafah Club” and is pictured in a blue sports kit alongside the team and coaches, suggesting he played football.
Multiple social media posts claimed the entire family was erased from the civil registry.
Sources were conflicted about the date of the attack, with some referring to it as occurring on July 24th while others provided the date as July 25th.
Where possible, names have been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) lists, which include national ID numbers. Since October 26, 2023 the MoH has released six 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.
Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the strike to the Israeli military. The Safa news agency reported that the attack hit a residential apartment with an artillery shell.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
The victims were named as:
Family members (4)
Summary
Sources (16) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (14) [ collapse]
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