During the night of July 17, 2025, five civilians, including three women, were killed and dozens, including three children, were injured by an alleged Israeli drone strike on a tent housing displaced people in the eastern part of the Abu Helou School located in the Bureji Refugee Camp in the central Gaza Strip. The attack also led to a destructive fire.
The Palestinian agency Safa reported at 3:02 a.m. that an Israeli airstrike on Abu Helou School led to the death of five civilians. Twitter/X user @ajmubasher also reported the strike, noting that dozens were injured, and posting a video filmed by Al Jazeera.
Those killed in the incident were named as: Muhammad Ahmed Mahmoud al-Qarnawi, aged 23 or 32; his brother, Bakr Ahmed Mahmoud al-Qarnawi (Abu Ahmed), aged 35 or 36; a 47-year-old woman named Umaima Muhammad Shahat Abu Arab (Umm Atiya); her daughters, 19-year-old Malak Muhammad Attia Abu Arab and 26-year-old Rahma Muhammad Attia Abu Arab. Umaima Muhammad Shahat Abu Arab’s three grandchildren, sons of her daughter, were also critically injured in the incident.
Where possible, the names of the victims have been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) lists, which include national ID numbers. Since October 26, 2023, the MoH has released a number of lists, along with an additional list of medical professionals, which was released on September 17, 2024. Airwars is matching individuals to the first list where their name appeared. In regard to this incident, names are matched to the eleventh “Palestinian Ministry of Health List of Fatalities in Gaza”, which was released on August 8th, 2025. The ages of additional victims have been also found by cross-checking names against lists of fatalities shared online by Genocide in Gaza, which has a list of “martyrs” of Israeli forces. The names within parentheses were found from the Ministry of Health list rather than local sources.
There are discrepancies in the sources regarding the exact ages of the victims. Muhammad Ahmed al-Qarnawi was aged 23 at the time of his death, according to the Ministry of Health list, and 32, according to the Genocide in Gaza website. His brother, Bakr Ahmed al-Qarnawi, was aged 35, according to the Ministry of Health list, and 36 according to the Genocide in Gaza website.
Following the incident, friends, family, and reporters took to social media to share the news. Mourning the loss of the two brothers, Mohammad and Bakr, several people shared photographs of the young men along with messages of grief and condolences. One such post reflected how the two had now joined their other brother, Osama, who was killed earlier in the war. Another poster asked that people pray for the two brothers who were “kind young men”.
In the images shown on social media, Mohammad is seen as a young man with short hair and a wide smile, wearing a while pullover. Bakr is seen as a young man with similar features, a short trimmed beard, wearing a black polo T-shirt.
Mourning the loss of her aunt, Umm Atiya Abu Arab, and her cousins, Malak Abu Arab and Rahma Abu Arab, @Deemaa Al Kateeb asked that God accept them. Sharing religious messages, she noted that “To God belongs what He gives and to God belongs what He takes, and everything with Him has a specified term. To God we belong and to Him we shall return.” Malak’s husband, Muhammad Abu Anas, also shared his grief in a post in which he lamented how he had lost both a wife and his mother-in-law. In the post, he told the story of how he came to marry Malak after losing his first wife and family towards the beginning of the war. On April 8, 2025, he married Malak, and just a few months later, he lost her to the violence of the conflict – much like his first wife and family. In the post, he grieved the passing of his mother-in-law, who he said was like a “second mother”, and all of this for the second time in his life during the same conflict.
An X user, @NemoAnno, reported geolocation details of the incident, indicating that a tent within the eastern school complex was struck during an Israeli attack. He also shared multiple images of the munition left on the site, alleging those can be remnants of a one-way attack drone.
A news reel provided by @ajmubasher on Twitter/X was circulated alongside this information. The footage depicted the ravaging fire and attempts to put it out with clothes and water, first responders treating the injured, and remnants of the munition present at the impact site.
Sharing photographs of the fiery aftermath of the attack, @mohammedhaniya remarked how fire had become a common threat to those sheltering in the camps. In his post, he remarked in bewilderment at how fire consumed those seeking shelter in these refugee camps. He noted, “it’s the same fire, unchanged, chasing us wherever we take shelter, burning again what’s left of us.” Other images shared on social media show the destruction of the area, and several depicted the remnants of buildings and rubble. The impact of the attack reportedly damaged other school buildings, neighbouring homes, and shops.
Where sources identified a belligerent, all sources attributed the strike to Israeli forces.