On 21st October 2023, the home of the Abu Assad family, adjacent to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and on Abu Assad Street in Deir Al Balah, was reportedly damaged by an alleged Israeli airstrike, killing seven civilians and injuring “dozens” others.<\/p>\n
Reporting of the incident identified the killing of mother Hilala Ibrahim Abu Assad<\/strong> and her 12-year-old twin children, daughter Aseel Abdel Nasser Abu Assad<\/strong> and son Ahmed Abdel Nasser Abu Assad, <\/strong>by the strike. A Facebook post from Dr. Sahar Saadi Kahil referred to Hilal as a “distinguished Tajweed teacher, memorizer of the Book of God and certified by many of the ten recitations” and posted an image of her with a Palestinian flag. Family members also provided condolences on the death of Hilala and her twin children.<\/p>\n
The Palestinian Information Center (@PalinfoAr) reported that “7 citizens died after the Israeli [forces] bombed the Abu Assad family home next to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.”<\/p>\n
According to Aljazeera (@AJArabicnet), “all members of the Abu Assad family were injured” while other sources reported on “a number of injuries” resulting from the strike and Khabar 24 identified “dozens” of injuries.<\/p>\n
The aftermath of the strike was posted by Palestine Dialogue Network (@paldf) and Abu Kareem News showing the building reduced to rubble with local civilians and rescue workers sorting through the rubble. A post by Nuseirat Panorama showed the arrival of injured civilians, including a young man and an elderly man, at a local hospital while images posted by Nader Saad Abdul Haseeb show a woman with an injury to her face. Graphic images of a dead infant and a dead child arriving at the hospital were also posted by Nuseirat Panorama.<\/p>\n
On October 9th, 2024 the Airwars Investigations Unit, along with Sky News, published an\u00a0investigation geolocating and matching<\/a>\u00a0airstrike footage released by the Israeli military with incidents in the Airwars archive. In total, Airwars\u2019 team identified 17 strikes leading to civilian harm from the first month of the war, of which the Israeli military itself had published footage. This strike was among the 17. As such this incident has been reclassified as a declared Israeli strike, rather than a likely one.<\/p>\n