Geolocation
Airwars assessment
At least 46 people were killed, including women, children and a journalist, and at least five others were injured, including three journalists, by alleged Israeli airstrikes on the Al-Sawaf family home in Shawa Square in the Al-Tiffah neighborhood east of Gaza City at 11:15pm on November 17, 2023.
On January 14, 2024, Airwars’ researchers spoke with Shimaa Musfafa Al Sawaf, daughter of the owner of the house, who provided the names of those killed and injured by the strike on her family’s home.
From the family of Mustafa Hosni Al-Sawaf (father of Shimaa Musfafa Al Sawaf who provided the details), Mustafa Hosni Al-Sawaf was killed along with his wife Maha Youssef Al-Jayar, along with their sons Mahmoud Mustafa Al-Sawaf and Ahmed Mustafa Al-Sawaf. Mahmoud’s wife Zein Mahmoud Al-Sawaf was also killed, along with their children Baraa Mahmoud Al-Sawaf, Maha Mahmoud Al-Sawaf, and Karam Mahmoud Al-Sawaf. Ahmed’s son Omar Ahmed Al-Sawaf and daughter Shahad Ahmed Al-Sawaf were also among those killed. Mustafa and Maha’s other three sons Mohammed Al-Sawaf, Marwan Mustafa Al-Sawaf and Montaser Mustafa Al-Sawaf were injured in the strike, but Marwan and Montaser were later killed in another incident on December 1st (see incident ISPT1345 for details).
A woman named Saleha Mahmoud Al-Sawaf was also killed, with her son Muhammad Mahmoud Al-Sawaf, Muhammad’s wife Hanaa Jamal Al-Batsh, along with their sons Obaida Muhammad Al-Sawaf, Osama Muhammad Al-Sawaf and Ahmed Muhammad Al-Sawaf, along with Saleha’s other grandson Mustafa Hatem Al-Sawaf.
Mustafa Hosni Al-Sawaf’s brother Khamis Hosni Al-Sawaf was killed along with his wife Magda Al-Sawaf and their children Hanadi Khamis Al-Sawaf, Ramez Khamis Al-Sawaf, and Youssef Khamis Al-Sawaf. Ramez’s wife Samah Magdy Al-Helou was also killed, in addition to their daughter Basmala Ramez Al-Sawaf. Youssef’s wife Shahinda Al-Batsh, and children Suhaib Youssef Al-Sawaf, Mahmoud Youssef Al-Sawaf, and Sham Youssef Al-Sawaf were also killed.
Another member of the Al-Sawaf family named Kafa Ahmed Al-Sawaf was killed, alongside her son Abdul Karim Ahmed Al-Sawaf, his wife Suhaila Al-Sawaf, and their children Al-Hassan Abdul Karim Al-Sawaf, Basant Abdul Karim Al-Sawaf, and Ahmed Abdel Karim Al-Sawaf.
From Nima Al-Sawaf’s family, Nima Al-Sawaf was killed, in addition to her daughter Asma Abd al-Rahman al-Sawaf and son Izz al-Din Abd al-Rahman al-Sawaf.
A man named Nabil Salah Al-Sawaf was killed with his wife Inam Al-Sawaf, and their daughter Lama Nabil Al-Sawaf.
Muhammad Fouad Al-Sawaf and Muhammad Salama Al-Sawaf were both injured in the strike, and were later killed in another strike on December 1st (see incident ISPT1345 for details).
In addition to the members of the Al-Sawaf family who were killed and injured, eight displaced civilians who were sheltering with the family were killed. @nissren_jaber reported that the building contained 150 displaced people at the time of the strike.
Mustafa Hosni Al-Sawaf (also referred to as Dr. Mustafa) was described by different sources as a journalist and a writer, with one source adding that “we learned from him at the beginning the path towards media life and media appearance”. Anadolu Agency also posted a condolence message for Mustafa, referring to him as a “journalist and political analyst” and “the great journalist and writer Mustafa”. Palestinian Ministry of Culture mourned the loss of Mustafa, pointing out that he “is considered one of the most famous Palestinian media figures and analysts, and has written hundreds of writings and analyzes on Palestinian political affairs.” Literary Hub described Mustafa as “the editor-in-chief of several newspapers and was founder and editor-in-chief of the first daily newspaper published in the Gaza Strip. Al-Sawaf also published a number of books, including a six-part series of articles, Days of Rage (2005), and a collection of political short stories, There Was a Householder (2017).” However, an Israeli Journalist named Roi Kais reportedly accused Mustafa of being sympathetic to Hamas.
According to @HuDa_NaIm92 (who initially reported that Montaser Mustafa Al-Sawaf was killed), Montaser was a photojournalist for Anadolu Agency, and included an image of him in a press vest with an AA microphone. Montaser posted a few days later on his own Facebook page that more than 45 people had been killed in the strike, “including my mother, father, my two brothers, and all of their children,” and that “I was injured in the face. Unfortunately, I have not yet found a doctor to treat me, as I am in Gaza City and there is no hospital for treatment, not even doctors” along with an image of his swollen and injured face.
A tweet from @Bashar_Hamdan referred to his friend as director Muhammad Al-Sawaf, adding that Muhammad’s family was filled with hope that the Arab countries would stop the conflict in Gaza, but instead were killed and injured. Anadolu Agency identified Muhammad as the director of Atef Multimedia Agency.
Another son of Mustafa and his wife Maha who was injured in the strike named Marwan Mustafa posted a condolence message to his “beloved” father, his mother who “left my heart”, his “beloved brother” Mahmoud and “the father of a kind heart” Ahmed, as well as a total of 47 people from his family who had been killed. According to Shireen Observatory, Marwan was born on January 12th, 1993 (he was 30 years old), he studied technology at the University College of Applied Sciences – Gaza and he worked at both the college and for Alef Multimedia, and he was pictured in a press vest.
Al Mayadeen News spoke with a witness who said that the strike occurred at 11:15pm on November 17th.
According to @Gazanow12345, a “massive fire” broke out at the location of the strike. Al Mayadeen also spoke with an eyewitness who said that “bodies were scattered tens of meters away from the targeted building” and that city residents were calling on rescue workers to extinguish the fire and rescue those trapped under the rubble.
*The youngest generation of each family have been counted as children until additional information comes out about the ages of victims.
Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the strikes to Israeli forces.
Due to the scale and urgency of Airwars’ assessment process, all images have been automatically uploaded to each assessment with the graphic filter applied to protect users. We have also included all images identified from the sources, which may also include any imagery of combatants.
The incident occured at 23:15:00 local time.
The victims were named as:
Family members (45)
Summary
Sources (21) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (9) [ collapse]
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Source: @HuDa_NaIm92 -
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Source: @adham922 -
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Source: @AJArabic -
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Source: @rdooan -
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Source: @rdooan -
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Source: @Bashar_Hamdan -
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Source: @AJA_Palestine -
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Source: Montaser Al Sawaf -
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Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention Shawa Square (ساحة الشوا) to the east of Gaza city (غزة), for which the generic coordinates are: 31.506944, 34.467778. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.