'Israel' strikes Gaza kids fetching water, blames it on 'malfunction'

Al Mayadeen

15-07-2025

At least eight Palestinians, most of them children, were killed and more than a dozen others were wounded on Sunday after an Israeli missile strike hit central Gaza, according to local officials. The Israeli military alleged the missile missed its intended target due to a technical malfunction.
In a statement, Israeli occupation forces (IOF) said the strike was aimed at an Islamic Jihad operative in the area, but the missile landed "dozens of metres from the target."
The missile struck a water distribution site in the al-Nuseirat refugee camp, killing six children and injuring 17 others, according to Dr. Ahmed Abu Saifan, an emergency physician at al-Awda Hospital.
Water shortages in Gaza have escalated in recent weeks, with fuel shortages forcing the shutdown of desalination and sanitation plants. Residents have increasingly relied on distribution centers to collect water in plastic containers.
Elsewhere on Sunday, Palestinian media reported that an Israeli airstrike on a busy market in Gaza City killed 12 people, including a well-known hospital consultant.
Israeli strikes on Gaza residents trying to fetch aid or water are nothing new. It has become the norm for the brutal occupation forces. Just three days ago, Israeli occupation forces committed a harrowing massacre by slaughtering women and children awaiting aid. A brutal massacre unfolded in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, after Israeli occupation forces targeted a crowd of starved Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid. According to Al Mayadeen's correspondent, the devastating airstrike killed 16 civilians, including 10 children, as desperate parents stood in line to receive nutritional supplements for their little ones.
A child asks his martyred mother to forgive him, his voice shaking as he kneels beside her body. Moments earlier, Israeli forces bombed a queue of women and children waiting for food supplements during a famine at Al-Tayyarah roundabout in Deir al-Balah. The strike killed 15… pic.twitter.com/Rqz0ojutBUThe Israeli attack reportedly struck near the al-Bashir laundry, in the vicinity of the al-Zuwari junction, where mothers and children had gathered in hopes of securing basic sustenance. Eyewitnesses described a chilling scene: lifeless bodies strewn across the street, many of them young children, an atrocity captured in graphic footage widely circulated by local media.
In the horrendous attack, "Israel" claimed it was targeting a Hamas operative, which activists called a propaganda tactic "Israel" resorts to whenever it wants to justify a crime or massacre.
A child asks his martyred mother to forgive him, his voice shaking as he kneels beside her body. Moments earlier, Israeli forces bombed a queue of women and children waiting for food supplements during a famine at Al-Tayyarah roundabout in Deir al-Balah. The strike killed 15… pic.twitter.com/Rqz0ojutBUGaza's Health Ministry stated that the death toll from the war, which began in October 2023, has now exceeded 58,000. In 24 hours, 139 additional deaths were recorded.
Efforts to broker a ceasefire remain stalled, with Palestinian and Israeli sources saying the two sides are deadlocked, primarily over the scope of an eventual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Indirect negotiations over a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce are ongoing in Doha, but the cautious optimism seen last week has largely faded, as "Israel" continues to bring in new demands.
In the early hours of Sunday, an Israeli missile struck a home in Gaza City where a family had sought refuge after evacuating from 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 amid the ruins.
"They came here, and they were hit. There is no safe place in Gaza," he said.