At least eight Palestinians, most of them children, were killed in central Gaza on Sunday after an Israeli missile struck the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to local officials. The Israeli military acknowledged that the missile missed its intended target, an Islamic Jihad militant, due to a malfunction.
In a brief statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the missile veered “dozens of meters from the target,” adding, “The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians” and confirmed that an investigation is underway.
The strike devastated a water distribution point—a lifeline for families amid severe shortages. Dr. Ahmed Abu Saifan, an emergency physician at Al-Awda Hospital, said six children were among the dead and at least 17 others were injured.
Fuel shortages have crippled Gaza’s desalination and sanitation systems, forcing residents to rely on crowded water collection centers. The strike on one of these critical facilities has deepened the crisis for displaced families.
Elsewhere on Sunday, a missile hit a market in Gaza City, reportedly killing 12 people, including a well-known hospital consultant, according to Palestinian media.
Gaza’s health ministry reported that more than 58,000 people have died since the war erupted in October 2023, with 139 new deaths recorded in the past 24 hours. While the ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, it said women and children make up over half of the casualties.
Efforts to broker a ceasefire remain stalled. Talks in Doha over a U.S.-backed 60-day truce have lost momentum, with both sides blaming each other for the impasse. At the core of the dispute is the scope of Israel’s potential withdrawal from the enclave.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led fighters attacked Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. Israel’s retaliatory campaign has displaced nearly the entire population of Gaza’s more than 2 million residents.
“There is no safe place in Gaza,” said Anas Matar, after a missile destroyed the home where his relatives had sought refuge. “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?”
