ReutersMahmoud Abdul Rahman Ahmed says his son, Abdullah, was “searching for a sip of water” when he took the family’s jerrycans on Sunday morning and headed as usual to one of the water distribution points in the urban Nuseirat camp, in central Gaza.
“That area was inhabited by displaced people, others who were exhausted by the war, and those who have seen the worst due to the imposed siege and limitations, and the ongoing aggression,” Mahmoud said in an interview with a local journalist working for the BBC.
“The children, Abdullah among them, stood in a queue with empty stomachs, empty jerrycans, and thirsty lips,” he added.
“Minutes after the children and thirsty people of the camp gathered, the warplanes bombed those children and the water distribution point, without prior notice.”
Graphic video filmed by another local journalist and verified by the BBC showed the immediate aftermath of the Israeli strike on a street in the New Camp area of Nuseirat.
He passes two men carrying young children before coming across a destroyed structure, beneath which dozens of yellow plastic jerrycans are clustered.
Women scream as bystanders pull a man from the rubble, while others try to help another man covered in blood. Other adults and children are seen lying motionless nearby.
Al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat said 10 people, including six children, were killed in the strike, and that 16 others were injured.
Along with Abdullah, they named the children who died as Badr al-Din Qaraman, Siraj Khaled Ibrahim, Ibrahim Ashraf Abu Urayban, Karam Ashraf al-Ghussein and Lana Ashraf al-Ghussein.
When asked about the strike, the Israeli military said it had targeted a Palestinian Islamic Jihad “terrorist” but that “as a result of a technical error with the munition, the munition fell dozens of meters from the target”.
The military said it was “aware of the claim regarding casualties in the area as a result” and “regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians”, adding: “The incident is under review.”
However, Mahmoud claimed that Israel “intended to convey a message: it won’t allow people to drink even the drinking water that they crave.”
He also lamented that dreams of Abdullah and the other children would never be realised.
“They were looking at reality with the hope of it changing, and of becoming like the other children of the world – practicing their normal role of playing, moving, traveling, eating, drinking, and living in safety,” he said.
ReutersThe UN says water shortages in Gaza are worsening due to the lack of fuel and spare parts for desalination, pumping and sanitation facilities, as well as insecurity and inaccessibility due to Israeli military operations against Hamas and evacuation orders.
As a result, many people are receiving less than the emergency standard of 15 litres per day, amounting to what the UN calls “a human-made drought crisis”.
“You see children queuing up, by the side of the road, with yellow jerrycans every single morning, waiting for the daily water truck to come and get their five litres [or] 10 litres, of water used for washing, cleaning, cooking, drinking, etc,” Sam Rose, the acting Gaza director for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), told the BBC.
“Every death is a tragedy. This one is particularly emblematic, given the circumstances in which it took place. But it’s one of many,” he added.
Last Thursday, 10 children and three women were killed as they waited for nutritional supplements outside a clinic in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah.
The Israeli military said it had targeted a Hamas “terrorist” nearby and, as with Sunday’s incident, that it regretted harming any civilians.
“We focus on these incidents, but of course these weren’t the only children killed in Gaza [on Sunday],” Rose said. “Every single day, since the start of the war, on average of classroom full of children have been killed.”
The executive director of the UN children’s agency (Unicef), Catherine Russell, meanwhile called both incidents “horrific” and demanded that Israeli authorities “urgently review the rules of engagement and ensure full compliance with international humanitarian law”.
Later this week, the UN Security Council will convene to discuss the situation of children in Gaza, following a request by the UK.
However, Israel’s permanent representative Danny Danon said council members would be “better served to apply pressure on Hamas for prolonging this conflict”.
“The children in Gaza are victims of Hamas, not Israel. Hamas is using them as human shields and the UN is silent,” he claimed.
Mahmoud said it was Israel which should be pressured to end the war.
“We have no power and no strength. We are victims. We are civilians just like other people in the world, and we don’t own any nuclear weapons or arms or anything,” he added.
“This war needs to stop, and so does the ongoing massacre happening in the Gaza Strip.”