One-year-old boy who had just uttered first words among dozens killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza
At least 15 Palestinians, including nine children, were killed while queuing for nutritional supplies outside a clinic in Deir Al Balah, according to Unicef. Among the victims was Mohammed, one, who spoke his first words to his mother, Donia, just hours earlier. The mother was critically injured in the strike, and lies in a hospital bed 'clutching Mohammed's tiny shoe', the UN agency said.
'The killing of families trying to access life-saving aid is unconscionable,' Unicef chief Catherine Russell said in a statement issued after the attack on Thursday. 'No parent should have to face such tragedy.'
The Israeli strike occurred as patients gathered to receive treatment for malnutrition, infections and chronic illnesses from a medical centre operated by a Unicef partner organisation, Project Hope.
The clinics are a 'place of refuge in Gaza where people bring their small children, women access pregnancy and post-partum care, people receive treatment for malnutrition, and more,' Project Hope's president, Rabih Torbay, said in a statement. 'Yet, this morning, innocent families were mercilessly attacked as they stood in line waiting for the doors to open.
'Horrified and heart-broken cannot properly communicate how we feel any more,' he said.
The Israeli military said the incident was under review, claiming it had targeted a Hamas militant who took part in the October 7 attacks.
At least 66 people were killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza on Thursday, according to the enclave's civil defence agency.
The killing of families trying to access life-saving aid is unconscionable
Unicef chief Catherine Russell
Three were killed by Israeli gunfire while waiting for aid in north-western Gaza city, adding to the high death toll from attacks near aid sites since the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began operating in late may.
At least 798 people have been killed while trying to receive food aid in Gaza since May 27, of whom 615 were killed near GHF sites, the UN Human Rights Office said on Friday.
UN chief Antonio Guterres has condemned the food delivery system as ' a death sentence ', saying 'people are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families'.
Journalist Ahmed Abu Aisha was killed in a strike west of Nuseirat in central Gaza on Thursday, according to medical sources, and at least five people were killed in Israeli bombing of tents sheltering displaced families in Al Qarara village in the city, official news agency Wafa reported.
On Friday morning, Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed at least six people in the north of the strip, including five at a school-turned-shelter.
The strikes come amid negotiations for a truce between Israel and Hamas that are being held in Doha, Qatar.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he is hopeful a Gaza ceasefire will be realised in the 'near future'.
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