UNICEF Mourns 7 Gaza Children Killed Waiting for Water

People wait for food at a communal kitchen in Gaza. (file)

The head of the UN child rights agency, UNICEF, has called for Israel to review its rules of engagement in Gaza after seven children were killed while waiting for water at a distribution point.

The incident occurred in central Gaza on Sunday, according to media reports, which said that four other people also lost their lives in the Israeli airstrike.

The Israeli military stated that it had been targeting a terrorist, but a “technical error” caused the munition to stray off course.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell noted that the incident came just days after several women and children were killed while lining up for nutritional supplies.

“The Israeli authorities must urgently review the rules of engagement and ensure full compliance with international humanitarian law, notably the protection of civilians, including children,” she wrote in a statement posted on X.

The UN has repeatedly condemned the killing of Palestinians seeking food aid amid the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, where food security experts warn that the entire population—some 2.1 million people—is not getting enough to eat.

The risk of famine remains, according to UNICEF. In June, more than 5,800 children were diagnosed with malnutrition, including over 1,000 children with severe acute malnutrition, marking the fourth consecutive monthly increase.

Meanwhile, “truckloads of food and medical supplies are waiting in warehouses” just outside the enclave, according to the UN Palestine refugee agency (UNRWA) in a tweet.

It included a quote from one of its health workers, saying: “In the past, I only saw such cases of malnutrition in textbooks and documentaries. Today, I am treating them face to face in the health centre.”

UNRWA appealed for an end to the starvation of civilians and the lifting of the siege.

“Let the UN, including UNRWA, do its lifesaving work,” the tweet said.

The small quantities of aid and critical supplies that have entered Gaza so far are nowhere near enough to meet the immense needs, the UN humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) said later on Monday.

It called for Israel to allow the urgent entry of aid at scale through all possible routes and corridors.

OCHA reported that health teams continue to suffer some of the worst impacts of the hostilities, with the Ministry of Health reporting on Sunday that another doctor had been killed in the previous 24 hours.

Although the health system has been decimated and is on the brink of collapse, hospitals continue to respond to mass casualty incidents as much as possible.

Israeli authorities have continued to issue displacement orders amid ongoing hostilities and destruction, the agency added.

On Friday, a displacement order was issued for the Rimal area of Gaza City, where some 70,000 people were sheltering at around a dozen displacement sites.

Today, more than 86 per cent of Gaza’s territory is either under displacement orders or located within the Israeli-militarized zone.

Separately, UNRWA highlighted the situation of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank amid the ongoing war in Gaza.

Agency chief Philippe Lazzarini told an international conference in Switzerland on Monday that “annexation is well underway.”

UNRWA said, “This is not just destruction: it is part of systematic forced displacement, a violation of international law, and a form of collective punishment.”

In January, Israeli forces launched operations in Tulkarm and Jenin in the West Bank, which UNRWA previously described as the most extensive in two decades.

Humanitarians reported last week that these operations are causing massive destruction and displacement, while attacks by Israeli settlers have intensified.

The high levels of violence continue, with OCHA reporting that two Palestinian men, one of whom was a US national, were killed near Ramallah on Friday during a settler attack.

Overall, more than 700 settler attacks have been recorded in the West Bank during the first half of this year, affecting over 200 communities, primarily in the Ramallah, Nablus, and Hebron governorates.