At least 10 children were among the 16 Palestinians killed in an Israeli airstrike when they were waiting for care outside a medical clinic in Gaza, according to local authorities.
The strike in Deir al-Balah on Thursday – which aid groups have called a “blatant violation of international humanitarian law” – comes as ceasefire talks continue to drag on with no immediate deal expected.
Bodies of women and children lying in pools of blood amid dust and screaming are seen in video footage verified by Reuters, with one clip showing several motionless children lying on a donkey cart.
A distraught mother was pictured sitting by the body of her daughter, who was killed in the blast, with other bodies laid out around her at a nearby hospital.
The mother, Samah al-Nouri, said: “She didn’t do anything, she was innocent, I swear. Her dream was for the war to end and that they announce it today, to go back to school. She was only getting treatment in a medical facility. Why did they kill them?”
Israel’s military said it had struck a militant who took part in the Hamas-led 7 October attack. It said it was aware of reports regarding a number of injured bystanders and that the incident was under review.
The fighting in Gaza has shown no sign of slowing as prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with president Donald Trump in Washington this week to work on a US-led ceasefire plan. Hopes for an agreement in the near term appeared to be fading as Mr Netanyahu prepared to return to Israel.
Mr Netanyahu is holding firm to the idea that Hamas must be destroyed, while Hamas wants a complete end to the war following the proposed 60-day truce.
US-based Project HOPE said the strike had hit right outside its Altayara health clinic. “Horrified and heartbroken cannot properly communicate how we feel anymore,” the aid group said in a statement.
The aid group’s president and CEO, Rabih Torbay, said: “Project HOPE’s health clinics are a place of refuge in Gaza where people bring their small children, women access pregnancy and postpartum care, people receive treatment for malnutrition, and more. Yet, this morning, innocent families were mercilessly attacked as they stood in line waiting for the doors to open.
“Horrified and heartbroken cannot properly communicate how we feel anymore. This is a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, and a stark reminder that no one and no place is safe in Gaza, even as ceasefire talks continue. This cannot continue. Project HOPE urgently calls for an immediate ceasefire, unimpeded humanitarian access, and a dramatic scale-up of aid to meet the urgent needs of Gaza’s civilian population.”
Gaza’s Nasser Hospital reported a total of 21 deaths in airstrikes in the southern town of Khan Younis and the nearby coastal area of Muwasi. It said three children and their mother, as well as two additional women, were among the dead.
The Deir al-Balah missile strike came as Israeli and Hamas negotiators held talks with mediators in Qatar over a proposed 60-day ceasefire and hostage release deal aimed at building agreement on a lasting truce.
A senior Israeli official said on Wednesday that an agreement was not likely to be secured for another week or two, however, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said on Thursday he was hopeful of a deal.
“I think we’re closer, and I think perhaps we’re closer than we’ve been in quite a while,” Mr Rubio told reporters at the ASEAN summit in Malaysia.
Several rounds of indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas have failed to produce a breakthrough since the Israeli military resumed its campaign in March following a previous ceasefire.
Over the past 24 hours, massive explosions in Gaza sent plumes of smoke up the sky and were visible from the border with Israel.
On Thursday, the Israeli military announced that a soldier was killed in Khan Younis a day earlier after militants burst out of an underground tunnel and tried to abduct him. The soldier was shot and killed, while troops in the area shot the militants, hitting several of them, the military said.
Eighteen soldiers have been killed in the past three weeks, one of the deadliest periods for the Israeli army in months, putting additional public pressure on Mr Netanyahu to end the war.
The war began after Hamas attacked Israel in 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage. Most have been released in earlier ceasefires. Israel responded with an offensive that has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, which is under Gaza’s Hamas-run government, doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants. The UN and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.
Repeated attacks by Israeli forces in recent weeks have killed hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza, many of them civilians, and injured thousands, according to local health authorities, putting an enormous strain on the enclave’s few remaining hospitals.
Dwindling fuel supplies risk further disruption in the semi-functioning hospitals, including incubators at the neonatal unit of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, doctors there said.
“We are forced to place four, five or sometimes three premature babies in one incubator,” said Dr Mohammed Abu Selmia, the hospital director, adding that premature babies are now in a critical condition.
An Israeli military official said that fuel destined for hospitals and other humanitarian facilities was let into the enclave on Wednesday and on Thursday.
However, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that far more fuel was needed to keep essential life-saving and life-sustaining services operating.
Meanwhile, Israel began demolitions on Thursday of more than a dozen buildings in the central city of Bat Yam, which saw the deadliest Iranian missile strike during the 12-day Israel-Iran war.
Nine people were killed, including five members of the same family, in Bat Yam. The family were Ukrainian refugees who fled the war and came to Israel for medical treatment, according to Israeli media.
Bat Yam mayor Tzvika Brot said the strike left 2,000 people – more than 1 per cent of the city’s population – homeless. Many are now living at hotels.
"We’re going to demolish 20 buildings, but we’re going to build them better, stronger, and there will be much more Israeli families running around here. That will be the best answer to our enemies,” he added.
A 55-year-old Palestinian man was killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on Thursday. The Israeli military said the man was shot after stabbing a soldier in the village of Rumana. The soldier suffered moderate wounds.
(Additional reporting from agencies)
