On Wednesday, October 25th 2023, at least three people were killed and at least nine were injured in an alleged Israeli strike on a home on Al Jihyeh Street in the Al Qarara area of Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip. The home reportedly belonged to Maher Abdul Rahman Awad (Abu Haitham).
Maha Awad’s wife, 56-year-old Dalal al-Shaer Awad was reportedly killed, along with their 38-year-old son, Muhammad Maher Awad, and her 30 or 31-year-old daughter, Noha Maher Awad. The names of those injured were not available via open sources.
At 11:30 am on October 25, the Palestinian Press Agency (Safa) reported “nine injuries in the bombing of a house in the town of al-Qarara.” Al Jazeera Egypt also reported the incident, alleging that the incident had killed and injured victims.
On Twitter/X, @shaabradio announced that casualties had resulted from a strike on “a house belonging to the Awad family.” Basmeh al-Farra also reported on Twitter/X that “a number of those injured were transferred from the targeting of an entire residential square to the Abu Awad family, al-Astal, and another family, and… martyrs and injuries were transferred from the place.” According to a post on Facebook by Ghada Elhenawy, at least one killed civilian arrived at Nasser Medical Complex after bombing of the Awad family home.
A Facebook account for the extended al-Awad Family shared a video taken in the aftermath of the alleged strike, showing the immense destruction as a crowd of people gathered at the site and searching through the scorched rubble. The post caption states that “with hearts filled with faith in God’s will and destiny, the Awad family at home and abroad mourns its martyrs”. Abdelrahman Zaher posted about “the martyrdom of my cousin, Muhammad Maher Awad, and his sister, Noha Maher Awad” and subsequently shared that “their mother/Umm Haitham Awad has now joined them.”
Where possible, Airwars has matched names 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.