Israel blames technical error after missile hits Gaza children collecting water
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip killed at least 32 people on Sunday, including six children at a water collection point, while the Palestinian death toll passed 58,000 after 21 months of war, local health officials said.
Israel and Hamas appeared no closer to a breakthrough in indirect talks meant to pause the war and free some Israeli hostages after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Washington visit last week. A sticking point has emerged over Israeli troops ' deployment during a ceasefire.
Israel says it will end the war only once Hamas surrenders, disarms and goes into exile, something it refuses to do. Hamas says it is willing to free all the remaining 50 hostages, about 20 said to be alive, in exchange for the war's end and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Frustrated, families of some hostages demonstrated outside Netanyahu's office Sunday evening. 'The overwhelming majority of the people in Israel have spoken loudly and clearly: We want to do a deal, even at the cost of ending this war, and we want to do it now,' said Jon Polin, father of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an Israeli-American hostage killed in captivity.
Throughout the war in Gaza, violence has surged in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Funerals were held there Sunday for two Palestinians, including Palestinian-American Sayfollah Musallet, killed by Israeli settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Children killed and Israel blames a technical error
In central Gaza, officials at Al-Awda Hospital said it received 10 bodies after an Israeli strike on a water collection point in nearby Nuseirat. Among the dead were six children.
Ramadan Nassar, a witness who lives in the area, told The Associated Press that around 20 children and 14 adults had been lined up to get water. He said Palestinians walk some 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) to fetch water from the area.
The Israeli military said it was targeting a militant but a technical error made its munitions fall 'dozens of meters from the target.'
In Nuseirat, a small boy leaned over a body bag to say goodbye to a friend.
'There is no safe place,' resident Raafat Fanouna said as some people went over the rubble with sticks and bare hands.
Separately, health officials said an Israeli strike hit a group of citizens walking in the street on Sunday afternoon in central Gaza City, killing 11 people and injuring around 30 others.
Dr. Ahmed Qandil, who specializes in general surgery, was among those killed, Gaza's Health Ministry said. A ministry spokesperson, Zaher al-Wahidi, told the AP that Qandil had been on his way to Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital.
In the central town of Zawaida, an Israeli strike on a home killed nine, including two women and three children, officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said. Later, Al-Awda Hospital said a strike on a group of people in Zawaida killed two.
Israel's military said it was unaware of the strike on the home, but said it hit more than 150 targets over the past 24 hours, including what it called weapons storage facilities, missile launchers and sniping posts. Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the militant group operates out of populated areas.
Gaza's Health Ministry says women and children make up more than half of the over 58,000 dead in the war. The ministry, under Gaza's Hamas-run government, doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count. The U.N. and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.
The Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war killed some 1,200 people and abducted 251.
Israel's Energy Minister Eli Cohen told right-wing Channel 14 that his ministry will not help rebuild infrastructure in Gaza. 'Gaza should remain an island of ruins to the next decades,' he said.
Funeral for Palestinian-American killed in the West Bank
In the West Bank, which has seen violence between Israeli troops and Palestinians and Israeli settlers' attacks on Palestinians, funerals were held for a Palestinian-American and a Palestinian friend.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said Musallet, from Florida, had been beaten by Israeli settlers. Diana Halum, a cousin, said the attack occurred on his family's land. The ministry initially identified him as Seifeddine Musalat, 23.
Musallet's friend, Mohammed al-Shalabi, was shot in the chest, the ministry said.
Israel's military has said Palestinians hurled rocks at Israelis in the area on Friday, lightly wounding two people and setting off a larger confrontation. Palestinians and rights groups have long accused the military of ignoring settler violence.
Their bodies were carried through the streets on Sunday as mourners waved Palestinian flags and chanted, 'God is great.'
Musallet's family has said it wants the U.S. State Department to investigate his death and hold the settlers accountable. The State Department has said it had no comment out of respect for the family.
Wafaa Shurafa And Imad Isseid, The Associated Press
Isseid reported from Al-Mazraa a-Sharqiya, West Bank. Associated Press writer Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed to this report.
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