At around 3:30 PM on Saturday, September 7th 2024, an Israeli aircraft bombed the Amr Ibn Al Aas School in Gaza City, causing the death of at least four people and injuring at least 20 people, including several children. The school, which is located in the Sheikh Radwan district north of the city, was being used as an IDP shelter at the moment of the declared Israeli strike. Israeli forces confirmed the strike, which they said was targeting an embedded Hamas command and control center inside the school.

The victims were identified as Omar Zakaria Al-Majdoub, 22-year-old Mohammed Amin Abu Nahl, Nasser Zaqout and Abdel Nassar.

The incident was reported by several sources, including Safa.ps and Al-Jazeera, which aired a TV report at the scene. Al-Jazeera reported that 3 “martyrs” and 20 wounded were taken to the Baptist Hospital. According to the Facebook account Free Palestine, which quoted the Civil Defense, more than 20 were wounded and most of the injured were children. The same source shared three images, originally posted on Telegram by Quds News Network (@QudsN), showing three wounded children who appear to be under ten years old being rushed in arms for treatment. Another set of images shows a child with a serum, several bandages, and blood stains on his feet, along with a man being carried in a stretcher by a member of the Red Crescent. A different photo from @QudsN shows a child who appears to be unconscious, with blood on his forehead.

More videos and photos captured in the wake of the alleged attack were widely shared on social media the same day. A video posted by Facebook user Omar Mashaqbeh shows the immediate aftermath of the reported strike. Several people can be seen inspecting the area that was allegedly hit, with smoke and dust covering the scene. A child is carried away, blood on his face and a wounded eye. The camera briefly captures a bleeding man, lying motionless on the ground, while someone lifts his shirt to examine the wounds. Another person, with what appears to be blood covering their right leg, is seen at the edge of the frame.

Although most sources reported a “bombing”, at least one of the victims may have been killed by a gunshot wound. In a mourning Facebook post, Mohammed Abu Al-Baraa Zaqout asserted that his brother, Nasser Zaqout, had been shot in the head and died three days later, on September the 10th.

A TV report by Al-Jazeera correspondent Anas Al-Sharif shows the school building is widely damaged, including a classroom in extremely poor condition. The camera zooms in on a puddle of blood next to a bicycle. A man holds up a broken doll and a toy truck before the image reveals stains of dry blood on the ground. Photos shared on Telegram by the aforementioned Quds News Network further depict the destruction of the school and what appears to be a fragment of one of the missiles that were reportedly fired by the IDF.

According to Facebook user Mohamed Awad, two buildings at the school were hit, including the prayer hall. This is corroborated by a mourning message shared by Raneen Abu Nahll, who wrote that his cousin, Muhammad Amin Abu Nahl, had “ascended to the pulpit of the Amr Ibn Al Aas School prayer hall” and become a “martyr”. The post includes a selfie of Raneen Abu and Muhammad Amin, with music playing in the background.

Nour Amin, Muhammad Amin’s sister, posted a photo of her brother’s lifeless body, covered in a sheet stained with blood. “We made you the most beautiful wedding procession in all of Gaza—the first procession in Gaza that will be yours”, she wrote, expressing that life was “unbearable” without him. Waseem Añà also honoured his cousin by sharing a photo of Muhammad Amin, wearing a dark blue shirt, smiling at the camera.

More mourning messages were posted by the relatives of the victims in the hours following the attack. Abdulla Zueiter expressed his condolences to his sister’s husband, Nahed Al Majzoub, for the death of his nephew, Omar Al Majdoub, whose body is seen over a stretcher, covered in a sheet with several blood stains, in a photo featured in the post.

Khalil Al-Barbari expressed his grief for the deaths of Omar Zakaria Al-Majdoub and Muhammad Amin Abu Nahl, calling them “companions in this world and companions in the hereafter, God willing”. In a Facebook post, he shared a photo of an improvised tomb with the names of the two “martyrs” painted on a piece of debris from the destroyed building, as well as a video of a procession of several men carrying the body of one of the victims. “We bear witness to Allah that they were among the righteous”, he wrote.

Facebook account Abu Osama the Algerian Palestinian Gazan posted a video of the child, Sami Hassan Issa -who appears to be about six years old-, with bandages on his left eye and around his head. According to his uncle, Sami Hassan was playing with other children when the force of a missile launched him into the air. His father had been killed at the same school months earlier.

Multiple sources including Mohamed Jaber posted an image of a small child covered in food and blood along with the caption “While he was eating…A child was injured by the enemy’s airstrike on the “Amr Ibn Al Aas” school in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood”.

Where possible, names have been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) lists, which include national ID numbers. Airwars is matching individuals to the first list where their name appeared. In regard to this incident, Mohammed Amin’s name was matched to the eleventh ‘Palestinian Ministry of Health List of Fatalities in Gaza’ list.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced on their official Telegram channel that “A short while ago, with the direction of IDF and ISA intelligence, the IAF conducted a precise strike on terrorists who were operating inside a Hamas command and control center in the northern Gaza Strip. The command and control center, which was embedded inside a compound that previously served as the “Amr Ibn Al As” School, was used by Hamas terrorists to plan and carry out terrorist attacks against IDF troops and the State of Israel. Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence.” At the time of writing, Airwars was unable to find open source information linking any of the known victims to Hamas.