The victims were reportedly hit while filling containers at a water tanker in the al-Nuseirat refugee camp. The wounded 16 people, including seven children were taken to Nuseirat’s al-Awda Hospital
By Titilope Adako
An Israeli air strike killed ten Palestinians, including six children, as they queued to fetch water in central Gaza on Sunday, emergency service officials have confirmed.
The victims were reportedly hit while filling containers at a water tanker in the al-Nuseirat refugee camp. The wounded 16 people, including seven children were taken to Nuseirat’s al-Awda Hospital.
Eyewitnesses said a drone fired a missile directly at the crowd. The Israeli military claimed a “technical error” caused the strike to miss its intended target, a member of Islamic Jihad, and confirmed the incident is under review.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said: “We are aware of the claim regarding casualties in the area as a result. The IDF works to mitigate civilian harm as much as possible and regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians.”
Unverified footage circulating online showed bloodied children and bodies at the scene, with locals rushing to rescue the injured using private vehicles and donkey carts.
Elsewhere in Gaza, Gaza’s Civil Defence Agency reported 19 more deaths from Israeli strikes on residential buildings in central Gaza and Gaza City on Sunday.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said its Rafah field hospital treated 132 people with weapon-related injuries on Saturday alone, 31 of whom died. Most of the victims had gunshot wounds and were reportedly trying to reach food distribution points.
Since new aid sites opened on 27 May, the hospital has handled over 3,400 weapon-wounded patients and recorded more than 250 deaths, surpassing the total number of mass casualty cases it treated in the entire previous year.
“The alarming frequency and scale of these mass casualty incidents underscore the horrific conditions civilians in Gaza are enduring,” the ICRC stated.
In a separate incident on Saturday, Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza said 24 people were killed near an aid distribution site. Witnesses alleged Israeli forces opened fire on people seeking food. The IDF said it was unaware of injuries caused by its fire and claimed only warning shots were used to disperse individuals considered a threat.
The UN human rights office has recorded 789 aid-related deaths so far — 615 near US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) sites, and 183 near UN and other aid convoys. The GHF rejected the UN’s figures, accusing it of relying on statistics from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Israel does not allow international media, including the BBC, into Gaza.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza began after Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack, which killed about 1,200 people and resulted in 251 hostages. The Hamas-run health ministry says over 57,800 people have since been killed in Gaza.
Gaza’s humanitarian conditions remain dire. Over 90% of homes have been damaged or destroyed. Water, healthcare, and sanitation systems have collapsed. Food, medicine, fuel, and shelter are in critically short supply.
The UN said 75,000 litres of fuel were allowed into Gaza this week — the first delivery in 130 days — but called it far below the minimum needed to support civilians and aid operations.
Nine UN agencies warned on Saturday that Gaza’s fuel supply was nearly exhausted. “Hospitals are already going dark. Maternity, neonatal and intensive care units are failing. Ambulances can no longer move,” the agencies said.
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