At least six children have been killed after an Israeli missile strike malfunctioned and landed on a crowd of people queuing for water, it has been claimed.
The strike, which killed a total of ten people and injured 17 others, hit a water distribution point in the Nuseirat refugee camp according to Gazan officials.
Witnesses said a drone fired a missile at people who were filling up their jerry cans next to a water tanker.
However, Israel said the missile had been intended for an Islamic Jihad militant in the area but a malfunction caused it to fall ‘dozens of metres from the target’.
‘The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians,’ it said in a statement, adding that the incident was under review.
It also insisted that it works to mitigate civilian harm ‘as much as possible’.
Water shortages in Gaza have worsened in recent weeks, with fuel shortages causing desalination and sanitation facilities to close.
As a result people, have become dependent on collection centres to fill up their plastic containers.
Pictured: A Palestinian boy, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point
A Palestinian boy at the site of an Israeli strike that killed Palestinians, gathered to collect water from a distribution point
Blood stains are seen at the site of an Israeli strike that killed Palestinians collecting water
Hours after the water tanker incident, 12 people were killed by an Israeli strike in a market in Gaza City, including a prominent hospital consultant, Palestinian media reported.
And early on Sunday morning a missile hit a house in Gaza City where a family had moved to after receiving an evacuation order from their home.
Anas Matar, whose family members were killed, said: ‘My aunt, her husband and the children, are gone.
‘What is the fault of the children who died in an ugly, bloody massacre at dawn?
‘They came here, and they were hit. There is no safe place in Gaza.’
Khaled Rayyan said he was woken by the sound of two large explosions after a house was hit in Nuseirat.
‘Our neighbour and his children were under the rubble,’ he said.
Another resident, Mahmud al-Shami, called on the negotiators to secure a deal.
‘What happened to us has never happened in the entire history of humanity,’ he said. ‘Enough.’
A Palestinian man and a child stand amid the rubble of a house in the aftermath of an overnight Israeli strike
A charity organization distribute hot meals to Palestinians facing difficulties in accessing food due to Israel’s ongoing attacks on the Gaza Strip
alestinians sit amid the rubble of a house in the aftermath of an overnight Israeli strike that hit Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip
A Palestinian boy salvages a mattress from the rubble of a house in the aftermath of an overnight Israeli strike
The Hamas-backed Gaza health ministry said on Sunday more than 58,000 people had been killed since the start of the war, with 139 added to the death toll in the past 24 hours.
The conflict began when Hamas militants stormed into Israel in October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
Of the 251 people taken hostage by militants that day, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
