Geolocation
Airwars assessment
On October 10th, 2023 at dawn, an alleged Israeli airstrike hit the Al-Qara family’s house in the town of Bani Suhayla in eastern Khan Yunis in the Gaza strip, killing between four and five civilians in the Al-Qara family, including the civilians Mohamed Ashraf Ismail Al-Qara (23 years old), his sister Waad Ashraf Ismail Al-Qara (18 years old), his other sister Iman Ashraf Ismail Al-Qara and her three week old son Saif Abu Hagras. Another member of the family, eight year old Menna reportedly sustained injuries from the bombing, and was said to be the sole survivor of the strike.
Mohamed Ashraf Al-Qara’s father Ismail Jabr Al-Qara “Abu Muhannad” (53 years old) was also reportedly killed in the strike. He was referred by one source, Majed Al Masri, as a “Commander” (القائد ) however no other evidence was found to suggest his militant status. The Al Qara family Facebook page referred to Ashraf as “professor”. Given that this term is also often used to refer to family ‘leaders’, Airwars has assumed civilian status for Majed Al Masri until further information comes to light.
All of the sources alleged that Israeli aircraft were responsible for the strike, and the Al Qara family reported that it was carried out at dawn, without warning.
Waad Ashraf Ismail Al-Qara was preparing for her wedding which was planned for a few days later, as reported by the journalist Tareq Abu Ishak and the Palestine Live Now Facebook account. Esmaeel Omer reported that injured children were transported to Nasser Hospital, and Twitter/X accounts @PalinfoAr amd @SafaPs report there were several injuries as a result of the strike, but journalist Tareq Abu Ishak and the Palestine Live Now Facebook account both report that only one person, eight year old Menna, survived the strike on the Al Qara house. Earlier reports say there were between two to three deaths and multiple people injured, but later reports, including those from the Al-Qara family, report that five people were killed by the strike. Ashraf Ismail Jabr Al-Qara “Abu Muhannad”’s cousin Rami Abdulkarim, and uncle Majed Al Masri, mourned the loss of their family in Facebook posts.
Where possible, names have been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of fatalities in Gaza released on October 26th, 2023.
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 around dawn.
The victims were named as:
Family members (6)
Summary
Sources (14) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (7) [ collapse]
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Source: Esmaeel Omer -
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Source: Majed Al Masri -
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Source: Majed Al Masri -
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Source: Al Qarra family -
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Source: Al Qarra family -
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Source: @shfanews_net -
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Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the town of Bani Suhaila (بني سهيلا). Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further. The generic coordinates for Bani Suhaila are: 31.345841,34.324911 .