Children among Palestinians killed by missile that IDF says malfunctioned
Warning: This story contains graphic details and imagery.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the strike missed its target and it "regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians".
Six children and two adults were killed.
The IDF said the missile had been intended to hit an Islamic Jihad militant in the area but that a malfunction had caused it to fall "dozens of metres from the target".
It said the incident was under review.
The strike hit a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing eight and injuring 17 others, an emergency physician at Al-Awda Hospital said.
Water shortages in Gaza have worsened sharply in recent weeks, with fuel shortages causing desalination and sanitation facilities to close, making people dependent on collection centres where they can fill up their plastic containers.
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.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages into Gaza.
At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages there are believed to still be alive.
Gaza's 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.
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.
US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said he was "hopeful" about Gaza ceasefire negotiations underway in Qatar.
He told reporters in Teterboro, New Jersey, that he planned to meet senior Qatari officials on the sidelines of the FIFA Club World Cup final.
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.
The indirect talks over a US proposal for a 60-day ceasefire are being held in Doha, but optimism that surfaced last week of a looming deal has largely faded, with both sides accusing each other of intransigence.
Mr Netanyahu 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.
The Israeli PM 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.
On Saturday, a Palestinian source familiar with the truce talks, said Hamas rejected withdrawal maps that Israel proposed, because they would leave about 40 per cent of the territory under Israeli control, including all of Rafah.
Reuters
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