Israeli Strike on Gaza Water Facility Results in At Least Eight Deaths, Including Children

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At least eight Palestinians, most of them children, lost their lives in central Gaza on Sunday following an Israeli strike aimed at collecting water, according to local authorities. More than a dozen individuals were injured in the incident, which the Israeli military acknowledged as mistakenly hitting the wrong target.

The strike occurred at a water distribution location within the Nuseirat refugee camp, resulting in the deaths of six children and injuries to 17 others, explained Ahmed Abu Saifan, an emergency doctor at Al-Awda Hospital.

Gaza has been experiencing significant water shortages recently, exacerbated by fuel shortages that have led to the shutdown of desalination and sanitation systems. This has forced residents to rely on centers where they can gather water in plastic containers.

The Israeli military stated that the missile was meant to strike an Islamic Jihad operative nearby, but an error led it to land “dozens of metres from the intended target.”

Palestinians carry humanitarian aid packages near a distribution center

Medics say those killed in a strike that hit a water distribution point included a 12-year-old. Source: AP / Abdel Kareem Hana

Hours later, 12 people were killed by an Israeli strike on a market in Gaza City, including a prominent hospital consultant, Ahmad Qandil, Palestinian media reported.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attack.

Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday that more than 58,000 people had been killed since October 2023, with 139 people added to the death toll over the past 24 hours.

The ministry says over half of those killed are women and children.

Ceasefire talks stalled

Negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire appeared to be deadlocked, with the two sides divided over the extent of an eventual Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian and Israeli sources said at the weekend.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to convene ministers late on Sunday to discuss the latest developments in the talks, an Israeli official said.

In Doha, indirect discussions are ongoing regarding a U.S.-suggested 60-day ceasefire. However, initial hopes for an imminent agreement have diminished significantly, with both parties blaming each other for the lack of flexibility.

Donald Trump being handed an envelope by Benjamin Netanyahu at a dinner table, with other people sitting on either side. There are also American and Israeli flags.

Israel’s army says a missile malfunctioned and missed its target, hitting a water distribution site. Source: AAP / AP / Alex Brandon

Netanyahu in a video he posted on Telegram on Sunday, said Israel would not back down from its core demands – releasing all the hostages still in Gaza, destroying Hamas and ensuring Gaza will never again be a threat to Israel.

At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages in Gaza are believed to still be alive.

Netanyahu and his ministers were also set to discuss a plan on Sunday to move hundreds of thousands of Gazans to the southern area of Rafah, in what Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has described as a new “humanitarian city” but which would be likely to draw international criticism for forced displacement.

An Israeli source briefed on discussions in Israel said that the plan was to establish the complex in Rafah during the ceasefire, if it is reached.

Recently, a Palestinian source involved in the truce negotiations reported that Hamas dismissed Israel’s proposed withdrawal maps since they would still allow around 40% of the area, including all of Rafah, to remain under Israeli control.

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has displaced almost the entire population of more than 2 million people, but Palestinians there say nowhere is safe in the coastal enclave.

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 in the southern outskirts.

“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?” said Anas Matar, standing in the rubble of the building.

“They came here, and they were hit. There is no safe place in Gaza,” he said.