IDF missile misfire kills six children, injures 17 at aid site in Gaza Strip

The strike was intended for a PIJ target, but misfired and hit a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp.

At least eight Palestinians, most of them children, were killed and more than a dozen others were wounded in central Gaza on Sunday, Hamas-affiliated officials said, in an Israeli missile strike which the military said missed its intended target.

The IDF said it had intended to hit a Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant in the area but that a malfunction had caused the missile to fall "dozens of meters from the target."

"The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians," it said in a statement, adding that the incident was under review.

The strike hit a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp, killing six children and injuring 17 others, said Ahmed Abu Saifan, an emergency physician at Al-Awda Hospital.

IDF misfire kills eight people in Gaza Strip

Water shortages in Gaza have worsened sharply in recent weeks, with fuel shortages forcing the closure of desalination and sanitation facilities, leaving people reliant on collection centers where they can fill their plastic containers.

In another attack, Palestinian media reported that a prominent hospital consultant was among 12 people killed by an Israeli strike mid-morning on a busy market in Gaza City.

The Hamas health ministry said on Sunday that more than 58,000 people had been killed since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October 2023, with 139 people added to the death toll over the past 24 hours. Talks aimed at securing a ceasefire appeared to be deadlocked, with the two sides divided over the extent of an eventual Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, Palestinian and Israeli sources said at the weekend.

The indirect talks over a US proposal for a 60-day ceasefire were continuing in Doha, but optimism that surfaced last week of a possible deal has largely faded, with both sides accusing each other of intransigence.