Mohamed Al-Wahidi, the public relations director of the Egyptian Committee for the Reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, was killed Tuesday evening in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a civilian vehicle in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City.
The killing is the latest loss for the Egyptian-backed reconstruction committee during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Committee officials and relatives said Al-Wahidi did not appear to be the target of the strike but was returning from a community mediation effort when he was killed.
An Israeli surveillance drone first targeted a civilian vehicle near Barcelona Park in the Tel Al-Hawa neighborhood southwest of Gaza City. The missile missed the vehicle, allowing the driver to escape, an eyewitness who requested anonymity told Al Manassa.
About 30 minutes later, Israeli forces struck the same vehicle again on Al-Maghrib Street in southern Gaza City. The strike killed Al-Wahidi and two others, including a child.
A medical source at Al-Shifa Hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Al Manassa that the hospital received three bodies and more than six wounded people, two of whom were in critical condition.
The Egyptian committee in Gaza mourned Al-Wahidi in a statement seen by Al Manassa, describing him as one of Gaza’s leading community mediators. The statement praised his patriotism, community service, and volunteer efforts to resolve disputes between families in order to promote tolerance, reconciliation, and social cohesion.
A member of Al-Wahidi’s family, who requested anonymity, said he had left home about two hours before the strike to mediate a dispute between two families. Al-Wahidi, head of the Committee of Mukhtars and Community Elders at the Egyptian Committee for the Reconstruction of Gaza, was returning from the mediation when the vehicle came under attack.
The relative said Al-Wahidi was not the Israeli military’s intended target but was seated beside the driver, whose car was directly hit.
He added that Al-Wahidi was widely known in the neighborhood as a respected mediator. Families regularly sought his help to settle disputes, and he often took the initiative to reconcile feuding families, particularly during the genocidal war in Gaza.
Al-Wahidi is not the first member of the Egyptian committee to be killed by Israel. In January, the Israeli occupation military targeted a vehicle carrying three journalists working for the committee’s media office in Gaza while they were on assignment filming camps in the Netzarim area near the center of the enclave.
The Egyptian Committee for the Reconstruction of Gaza was established by the Egyptian government as a humanitarian initiative to support the Palestinian people and address the urgent needs of residents of the Gaza Strip.
