Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Two civilians, both guarding humanitarian aid, were allegedly shot and killed by Israeli forces in the al-Shawka area, east of Rafah, on the morning of Wednesday, 5th February, 2025.
Those identified as killed in the incident were named by multiple sources as Muhammad Awda Awad al-Dabari and Abdullah Subhi al-Saadini.
Whilst Qatari network Al Araby TV reported on Twitter/X that one man had been killed and one injured in the shooting incident. Other sources, such as Kari Abdullah Thabet, writing on Facebook, identified two men to have been killed in the incident. It is possible either that the injured man reported by Al Araby TV in fact died, or that a third person was injured in the incident. To reflect this uncertainty, the number of people killed in the incident has been recorded as two, whilst the number of people injured has been recorded as 0-1.
Asmaa Bakr wrote of their deaths on Facebook, “May God have mercy on them and light up their graves, God willing.”
The alleged incident occurred during the first stage of the 2025 Gaza ceasefire, which came into effect on 19th January 2025.
Al Araby TV reported that the men who were shot guarding humanitarian aid. It is not explicitly clear whether they were fulfilling this function at the time they were allegedly shot by Israeli forces. Although Hamas police forces have played a prominent role guarding humanitarian aid in Gaza, there is no indication from any of the available sources that the two men reportedly killed in this incident were militants.
All sources that identified a belligerent attributed the shooting to Israeli forces.
The incident occured in the morning.
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the Al-Shouka area (حي الشوكة) to the east of Rafah city (رفح). Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to find boundaries for the neighbourhood and to verify the location further. The generic coordinates for Al-Shouka are: 31.260420, 34.286980.
Summary
Sources (14) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (3) [ collapse]
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Source: @AlarabyTV -
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Source: Al Arabi TV -
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Source: Asmaa Bakr