At least ten people, including six children, died in an Israeli air strike while waiting to fill water containers in central Gaza on Sunday, media reports said.

The bodies of the victims were sent to Nuseirat's al-Awda Hospital.

The hospital is also treating 16 people who were injured in the incident.

The injured reportedly included seven children, doctors treating them told the BBC.

Eyewitnesses told BBC a drone fired a missile at a crowd queuing with empty jerry cans next to a water tanker in al-Nuseirat refugee camp.

Israeli military responds

The Israeli military told the British media that there had been a "technical error" with a strike targeting an Islamic Jihad "terrorist" that caused the munition to fall dozens of meters from the target.

The military said the incident is currently under review.

Gaza: ‘Unacceptable’ choice between getting shot or getting fed

Following the deaths of several children in an Israeli strike on Palestinians waiting in line for nutritional supplements in central Gaza on Thursday, UN humanitarian officials have once again condemned the killings of people at aid distribution sites in the enclave.

UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva on Friday that “we've raised concerns about atrocity crimes having been committed and the risk of further atrocity crimes, where people are lining up for essential supplies such as food and medicine and where they are being attacked, where again… they have a choice between being shot or being fed”.

Deadly lottery

“This is unacceptable and it's continuing,” she deplored.

Shamdasani said that her office is still looking into the incident in which at least 15 Palestinians including women and children were reportedly killed by a strike in front of a clinic in Deir al-Balah run by US-based aid group Project Hope, a partner organization of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).  

In a statement on Thursday UNICEF chief Catherine Russell said that the killing of families trying to access life-saving aid is “unconscionable”.

The Israeli military reportedly said that it was targeting a Hamas member involved in the terror attacks in Israel on 7 October 2023.

Asked about the rationale of putting civilians, including children, in mortal danger when targeting one specific person, Shamdasani said that over the course of the conflict in Gaza OHCHR has had serious concerns about respect for essential international humanitarian law principles, including that of distinction and proportionality.

“We have seen that of the overall death toll in Gaza; a large proportion are women and children. And again, that raises serious questions about whether these principles are being respected,” she said.

Hundreds killed queuing for food

Killings of Gazans at or around aid distribution sites and near humanitarian convoys have become a regular occurrence in a context of restrictions on the entry of food, fuel and relief items into the Strip and particularly since the establishment of food distribution sites bypassing the UN operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Since late May, this militarised aid distribution model, backed by Israel and the United States, has sought to sideline the UN and its experienced humanitarian partners.  

OHCHR’s Shamdasani said that from 27 May, when the GHF started operations in Gaza, until 7 July, OHCHR recorded 798 killings “including 615 in the vicinity of the GHF sites and 183 presumably on the routes of aid convoys”.  

Gunshot injuries

The deaths of almost 800 people trying to access aid were “mostly due to… gunshot injuries”, Shamdasani said.

Joining her in condemning the killings, World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said that he is “slowly lacking words to describe the scenario”.

“People being shot at distribution sites… scores of women and children and men and boys and girls being killed while either getting food or in what’s supposedly safe shelters or on the road to health clinics or inside health clinics - this is far beyond unacceptable.”