SAEDNEWS: An Israeli airstrike targeting a crowded water distribution point in central Gaza killed at least eight Palestinians, most of them children, in another attack deepening the enclave’s humanitarian catastrophe.
At least eight Palestinians, including six children, were killed on Sunday when an Israeli missile struck families gathering water in Nuseirat refugee camp, according to local health officials.
Seventeen others were injured in the blast, which tore through plastic containers and sent shrapnel across the crowd.
Ahmed Abu Saifan, an emergency physician at Al-Awda Hospital, described the scene as "an indescribable horror."
The Israeli military admitted the missile had malfunctioned and landed “dozens of meters from the intended target,” claiming it had aimed to assassinate an Islamic Jihad fighter.
Water shortages in Gaza have escalated as fuel supplies run out, shutting desalination and sanitation facilities and forcing residents to line up for hours at collection points.
Hours after the Nuseirat attack, another Israeli airstrike hit a market in Gaza City, killing 12 people, including a respected hospital consultant, Ahmad Qandil, according to Palestinian media reports.
Israel offered no immediate comment on the market bombing.
Gaza’s health ministry reported that the war has killed more than 58,000 people since October 2023, with over half identified as women and children.
Despite the carnage, Israeli leaders continued to reject concessions in ceasefire negotiations underway in Qatar.
Indirect talks on a proposed 60-day ceasefire have stalled, with Hamas rejecting Israeli withdrawal maps that would leave around 40% of Gaza under occupation, including all of Rafah.
On Sunday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers were set to discuss plans to relocate hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to Rafah, which war minister Israel Katz described as a "humanitarian city," a move widely condemned as forced displacement.
