At approximately midnight on October 16th, 2023, at least one civilian, a young man, was killed, and four others were injured in an alleged Israeli airstrike on a residential apartment in Hamad town, Khan Yunis, the Gaza strip.
Initial reportage from Shehab Agency stated a ‘number of casualties’ as a result of the bombing, with a later update from Shehab specifying that there were at least ‘one martyr and a number of injuries.’ The Palestine Information Center noted that the building bombed belonged to the Abu Shawish family, and that a ‘young man was martyred and several injuries have been recovered until this moment’ while Al-Sharq News reported that the strike resulted in the death of a Palestinian and the injury of four others.
One of the images showed a specific apartment in a particular block in Hamad town had been struck. A tweet from @aboodka_04 identified the names of those killed and injured. 18-year-old Ahmed Anwar Ahmed Abu Shawish was killed and 14-year-old Muhammad Anwar Ahmed Abu Shawish, 24-year-old Rami Anwar Ahmed Abu Shawish, 17-year-old Bahaa Anwar Ahmed Abu Shawish, and 44-year-old Ibtisam Ibrahim Abu Shawish were injured. There was no publicly available information to indicate any of them were militants.
A post from Khaled Ali Goevel included a condolence message for Ahmed Anwar Ahmed Abu Shawish, who was a former student, and included an image of them both from an honours ceremony. Ahmed’s father Anwar and brother Mahmoud both posted condolence messages as well, with Anwar describing his son as “you were always smiling in your life, never leave your smile.”
Hamad Housing specified the location of the strike as a high floor in tower E5 in Hamad residential city. According to Arab Events, the body of the young man who was killed arrived at Nasser Medical Complex.
Airwars has matched Ahmed’s name with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of nearly 7000 victims’ names and ID numbers released on October 26th.
Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the strike to Israeli forces. According to Anwar Abu Shawish, whose son Ahmed was killed, the strike occurred without warning.