At least ten Palestinians, including six children, were killed in central Gaza on Sunday after an Israeli airstrike hit a group of civilians reportedly waiting to fetch water, according to emergency service officials.
The victims were queuing with empty jerry cans next to a water tanker in al-Nuseirat refugee camp when a drone-fired missile struck, eyewitnesses said.
The bodies were taken to al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat, which also treated 16 others injured in the blast, among them seven children.
Disturbing footage circulated online showed the aftermath, with bloodied children, lifeless bodies, and scenes of panic as residents rushed to transport the wounded using private cars and donkey carts.
The Israeli military has yet to comment on the incident.
Sunday’s airstrike came amid an escalation of Israeli aerial assaults across the Gaza Strip. Gaza’s Civil Defence Agency reported that an additional 19 Palestinians were killed in three separate attacks on residential buildings in Gaza City and central Gaza.
Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) revealed it had witnessed a dramatic increase in mass casualty incidents at its field hospital in Rafah, southern Gaza. On Saturday alone, the facility treated 132 patients with weapon-related injuries—31 of whom died.
Most injuries were gunshot wounds sustained while attempting to access food distribution sites.
Since late May, when new aid distribution centres began operations, the Rafah field hospital has recorded over 3,400 weapon-wounded patients and more than 250 deaths—surpassing all mass casualty cases treated there in the previous year.
“The alarming frequency and scale of these incidents underscore the horrific conditions civilians in Gaza are enduring,” the ICRC said.
The United Nations human rights office reported 789 aid-related deaths since May 27, with 615 of them occurring near the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) sites in central and southern Gaza.
These sites are supported by the US and Israel and guarded by private contractors. The remaining 183 deaths occurred near UN or other humanitarian convoys.
In response, the Israeli military acknowledged incidents where civilians were harmed and stated it is working to reduce potential conflict between its forces and the civilian population.
However, GHF leadership has accused the UN of using “false and misleading” statistics sourced from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
In a separate incident on Saturday, Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza reported 24 fatalities near another aid site, where witnesses claimed Israeli forces opened fire as civilians gathered for food.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) denied any injuries from their fire, stating warning shots had been fired at what they perceived as a threat.
The ongoing conflict, which began after Hamas launched a cross-border assault on October 7, 2023—killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages—has since claimed at least 57,882 lives in Gaza, according to the territory’s health authorities.
The humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate. More than 90% of Gaza’s homes are damaged or destroyed, and basic infrastructure has collapsed.
The health, water, and sanitation systems are failing, with severe shortages of food, fuel, and medicine. Nearly the entire population has been displaced repeatedly.
Although a shipment of 75,000 litres of fuel was allowed into Gaza this week—the first in 130 days—the UN described it as “far from enough.” Nine UN agencies warned on Saturday that the territory’s fuel reserves had reached “critical levels,” threatening the functionality of hospitals, ambulances, water systems, and bakeries.
“Hospital units, including neonatal and intensive care, are shutting down,” the UN said. “Ambulances can no longer operate, and lives continue to hang in the balance.”
