Israel blames ‘error’ as strike kills children awaiting water

GAZA CITY

Children queue with pots to receive meals from a charity kitchen in Gaza City on July 14, 2025. (Photo by BASHAR TALEB / AFP)

Ten people, many of them children, were killed in a strike at a water distribution site in central Gaza on July 13, with the Israeli military saying that it was the result of a “technical error” with a munition.

Around 20 children and 14 adults were lined up to get water at a distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory. Palestinians walk some 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) to fetch water from the area.

Gazan health officials at Al-Awda Hospital said the strike that hit a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp killed 10 people, including six children.

The Israeli Defense Forces admitted it had erred while targeting an operative from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.

“Due to a technical malfunction in the munition, it struck dozens of meters away from the intended target,” the IDF said.

The army said it opened an investigation, adding that the IDF “makes every effort to minimize harm to uninvolved civilians.”

Water shortages in Gaza have worsened sharply in recent weeks, with fuel shortages causing desalination and sanitation facilities to close, making people dependent on collection centers where they can fill up their plastic containers.

More than a dozen people were also reported killed near an aid distribution site, with eyewitnesses describing shots to victims’ heads and bodies.

The strikes came as Israel and Hamas appeared no closer to a breakthrough in indirect talks meant to pause the war and free some Israeli hostages. A sticking point has emerged over Israeli troops’ deployment during a ceasefire.

Meanwhile, an Israeli proposal to move Gazans into a so-called "humanitarian city" has come under intense fire, slammed by critics as a costly distraction at best and at worst a potential step towards forcing Palestinians off of their land.

Rafah project a concentration camp: Ex pm

A criticism regarding the project in the southern Gazan city of Rafah also came from former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

“It is a concentration camp. I am sorry,” Olmert told the Guardian.

If Palestinians are forcibly relocated to the so-called humanitarian city, then the situation could be considered “part of an ethnic cleansing.” However, he added, “It hasn’t yet happened.”

Olmert argued that the current Israeli operations do not amount to ethnic cleansing, as evacuating civilians for their protection is permissible under international law. He also noted that Palestinians have previously returned to their homes after military offensives concluded.

“When they build a camp where they [plan to] ‘clean’ more than half of Gaza, then the inevitable understanding of the strategy of this [is that] it is not to save [Palestinians],” said Olmert, who served as prime minister from 2006 to 2009.

“It is to deport them, to push them and to throw them away. There is no other understanding that I have, at least.”

The proposed zone is intended to initially house approximately 600,000 Palestinians who have already been displaced and are currently sheltering in the coastal Mawasi area. Entry into the area will be contingent upon a security screening process aimed at ensuring that no members of Hamas are among them.