Two civilians, including a ten-year old girl, were killed and seven other civilians were injured by shrapnel from an Israeli airstrike on a building in the Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City during the early evening of 17th May, 2021.
Ziyad Kamal Abdullah Abu Dayer, aged 45 or 55, was killed in the strike, along with his niece, Rafif Morshid Kamal Abu Dayer, aged 10. They were eating a meal with relatives in a private residential garden beside the Ghazi al-Shawa building when the strike took place, between 5.45 and 6.45 p.m. in the evening.
In addition, 10 or more other civilians were reportedly wounded, including Rafif’s two brothers, other members of the Dayer family, and Health Ministry employees. Incident ISPT097, which occurred close by and involved the Health Ministry and clinic, records the health employees injured (2 two workers from the Ministry of Health and Dr Majed Salha from the Al-Rimal clinic), putting the injury toll in this incident at 7 civilians injured.
B’Tselem provided testimony from Muhammad Abu Dayer, 16, Ziad’s son: “At 3:15 P.M., I went back to my uncle’s house. We arranged mattresses on the balcony to sit and eat. My father sat on a chair, reading the Quran on his phone. My uncle’s daughter Rafif, was sitting next to him drawing. I sat with the rest of the family – my mother, my uncle, his wife and their eight sons – on the mattresses. Suddenly, we heard something whistle through the air. Then there was smoke and dust, and bits of debris and stones rained down on us. I got up to look for everyone. I put a hand on the door and discovered it had no handle. The water tanks had been damaged, and the water leaking from them helped clear the smoke and dust. It also put out the fire that had started burning in the mattresses and sofas. Only then did I start seeing what was happening around me. I saw everyone wounded and bleeding. I looked for my father and found him on the sofa, wounded in the head. Part of his head had fallen to the floor. When I saw that, I screamed in horror. I was in shock. It was the first time I’d seen anything like it. I’ve never seen anyone injured or killed. I went out to al-Wehdah Street. My cousins Ziad, 18, and Muhammad, 21, came out after me. They were looking for an ambulance. A few minutes later, ambulances arrived. They took away my cousin Rafif, who’d been hit in the head and neck and killed. Then they put my father in the ambulance. He was dead. I went with them to the hospital. I was examined and they found I was injured in my shoulder and left toe. The rest of my family were examined, too. That evening, at 8:00 P.M., we buried my father. Then we went to my uncle Khaled’s house in the a-Sabra neighborhood, because it’s no longer possible to live at my uncle Murshed’s house.It was a hard, sad day. My father is dead and I’m alone. I lost the person who was dearest to me. He was afraid something would happen to me in the airstrikes and that I’d be killed, but in the end, it happened to him. I still can’t believe it happened and don’t want to believe it. I feel like I’m living in a nightmare. I’m still young and already an orphan. I lost my father, who was my whole world and gave me hope in this world. He meant everything to me.”
Images taken by Getty Images show at three children, a woman, and a man receiving medical treatment at Al Shifa Hospital following the strikes.
The New York Times reported that Rafif loved to draw and that “she had sketched one of the high-rise buildings that an Israeli airstrike destroyed in Gaza City two days earlier and had started to color in her drawing when her mother called her for lunch. “You can go back to drawing after you eat,” her mother said. The girl sat down for lunch with 13 relatives in a private residential garden. Minutes later, Israel attacked a building nearby, an uncle said. Shrapnel and rubble struck Rafeef. She and another uncle were killed.”
The Electronic Intifada gave details that Ziad Abu Dayer and his family had actually taken shelter at the Al Hawa building that day because the family’s own home had been razed during the previous day’s bombing. “We thought it would be a safe place to hide,” said Ziad’s son Kamel, 16. Kamel had just checked to see if his father wished to eat something before the bombing occurred. Ziad was reading the Quran and wanted to continue doing so. “The bombing started a few minutes later,” said Kamel. “Black smoke quickly spread all around the place. We couldn’t see anything. I eventually found my father lying on the ground.” Kamel, who was injured in the arm, accompanied his father as he was rushed to hospital by ambulance. The ambulance took longer than it should have to arrive because Israel had severely damaged the adjoining road, ambulance drivers encountered difficulties traveling to and from the hospital.
In an interview with @AlMamlakaTV, the son of Ziyad and cousin of Rafif said that “I still have my father’s blood on the ground”, recounting the aftermath of the strike that caused injuries to so many members of his family.
The top three storeys of the al-Shawa building were destroyed in the strike. The building is mixed-use residential and commercial, housing organisations including the American Children’s Relief Foundation, the Qatar Red Crescent and the Islamic National Bank headquarters, along with private medical practices.
Qatar’s foreign minister released the statement that “The State of Qatar expresses its strong condemnation of the Israeli occupation’s bombing of the Qatari Red Crescent Society building in the besieged Gaza Strip, which resulted in several deaths and injuries,” the statement said.
The Al-Remal medical clinic nearby was also severely damaged in the strike, rendering inoperable Gaza’s only Covid-19 testing site, according to the New York Times. Other nearby buildings damaged in the strike include the Gaza Ministry of Health, an orphanage and the Palestine Feminist Foundation.
The Danish Refugee Council confirmed that they had been working with Rafif as part of their psycho-social support programme for children experiencing conflict trauma.
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs commented that the bombing of the Shawa building and its impact on civilians and essential infrastructure “raises serious concerns over a possible indiscriminate and disproportionate attack under international humanitarian law.”
The IDF released a statement at 18:59 that “Fighter jets recently attacked the main Hamas of the Hamas terrorist organization’s internal security organization in the Rimal neighborhood, in the northern Gaza Strip.”
Anadolu Agency pointed out that the strikes occurred without warning.
The incident occured between 5:45 pm and 6:45 pm local time.
