Al-Shati Camp Massacre 2021: A Bomb on Two Families at Eid

At dawn on Saturday, 15 May 2021, the third day of Eid al-Fitr, Israeli occupation aircraft dropped a guided bomb on Alaa Abu Hatab’s three-storey home in al-Shati camp, west of Gaza, without any warning. Two women and eight children of the Abu Hatab and al-Hadidi families were killed; only baby Omar al-Hadidi and young Maria Abu Hatab survived. [1] [2]

Human Rights Watch found no evidence of a military target at or near the site and concluded the attack may amount to a war crime. [1] It is one of the Zionist massacres against the Palestinian people, one day before the al-Wehda Street massacre.

The al-Shati massacre at a glance

An Eid visit

The night before, Maha al-Hadidi dressed her children in their Eid clothes and took them to visit her brother Alaa Abu Hatab in al-Shati camp, to celebrate Eid with their cousins. [2] [4] The children stayed the night there. [2]

The massacre: a bomb without warning

At about 1:40 a.m. an Israeli aircraft dropped a US-made GBU-39 guided bomb fitted with a delayed-action fuze, which let it penetrate the building and destroy its supports before detonating, and the house collapsed on its occupants. [1]

Alaa Abu Hatab said: “Before I left the house there was no warning that anything would happen to our house”; there was no phone call and no “warning strike.” [1] The bodies reached al-Shifa hospital in scattered pieces. [5]

The ten

Alaa’s wife Yasmine was killed with their four children, and his sister Maha with her four sons: [1] [2] [3]

Ages are approximate and differ by a year between sources. [2] [3] Fifteen others were wounded. [4]

Baby Omar

Five-month-old Omar al-Hadidi was found in the rubble in his dead mother’s arms, injured around the eye and with a broken foot. [2] [3] He was the sole survivor of Mohammed al-Hadidi’s family; his father said, “Thank God I still have Omar.” [4] Alaa Abu Hatab’s five-year-old daughter Maria also survived, injured. [1]

“I still don’t know why they bombed my house and killed my wife and children and my sister and her children,” Alaa Abu Hatab said. [1]

Human Rights Watch: no military target

The occupation army claimed it struck “a number of Hamas terror organization senior officials [in] an apartment used as terror infrastructure,” and that the strike hit a bunker, collapsing the building. [1]

But Human Rights Watch found no evidence of any armed group presence in the building or of a bunker beneath it, and witnesses knew of no militants or military targets in or near it. “There were no militants in or near my house and no rockets or rocket launchers there,” Alaa Abu Hatab said. [1]

HRW concluded there was “no evidence of a military target at or near the site of the airstrike,” that the attack was not directed at a specific military objective, and that an unlawful attack carried out deliberately or recklessly is a war crime; it called for an investigation. [1]

Conclusion

Maha al-Hadidi took her children in their Eid clothes to her brother’s home, and a US-made bomb fell on them without warning, killing her and her four sons, and her sister-in-law and her four children. All that remained to Mohammed al-Hadidi was his baby Omar, pulled from his mother’s arms beneath the rubble.

Frequently asked questions about the al-Shati camp massacre

When did the al-Shati camp massacre take place?

At dawn on Saturday, 15 May 2021, at about 1:40, on the third day of Eid al-Fitr.

How many people were killed in the al-Shati camp massacre?

Ten: two women and eight children of the Abu Hatab and al-Hadidi families.

Who is baby Omar al-Hadidi?

A five-month-old pulled from the rubble in his dead mother’s arms, the sole survivor of his family.

Did the occupation warn the residents?

No. The homeowner, Alaa Abu Hatab, said he received no warning, neither a phone call nor a “warning strike.”

What did Human Rights Watch find?

No evidence of a military target at or near the site; it found the attack unlawful and possibly a war crime.

Sources and references

Arabic-language sources are listed with translated titles.

1. “Gaza: Apparent War Crimes During May Fighting,” Human Rights Watch, 27 July 2021.
2. “The Martyrs of the al-Hadidi Family: When Missiles Kill Children in Their Eid Clothes,” Arabi21 via Anadolu, 28 May 2021.
3. Incident M21ISPT068, Airwars civilian harm monitor.
4. “Israeli Hit on Gaza Refugee Camp Kills 10, Including 8 Children,” Al Jazeera English, 15 May 2021.
5. “Massacre in Gaza: Israel Kills Children and Women in Strike on Home in Shati Camp, Only an Infant Survives,” Arabic Post, 15 May 2021.