7 children killed in Israeli strike while lining up for nutritional supplements in central Gaza
CBC
At least seven children were killed by an Israeli strike in broad daylight while waiting in line for nutritional supplements near a medical centre in central Gaza on Thursday, health officials say.
The bodies of the children, covered in blood, were lined up along the floor of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital as relatives came up to hold them one by one.
Gaza's Health Ministry said the attack in Deir al-Balah happened at around 9:15 a.m. on Thursday, killing at least 15 people, including seven children between one and 14 years of age.
Abu Hassan Bashir, 38, was in the area at the time of the strike and rushed to help at the scene of the attack.
"I held two children who were martyred," Bashir told CBC News freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife.
"This small Zionist rocket ripped apart the children and turned them into martyrs," he said, pointing at a small crater in the ground which appeared to have been left after the strike.
He also pointed to the blood stains covering the curbs at the site, where children's slippers had been left behind, adding that most days, the line of women and children standing there was much longer than the one on Thursday morning.
"If [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu delayed the strike a bit, there would have been 100 martyrs because of how busy it gets here," Bashir said, adding that medical centre provides nutritional supplements and ailment treatment for children and pregnant women.
Project Hope, an aid group that runs the humanitarian facility at the site of the strike, confirmed the deaths on Thursday.
"No child waiting for food and medicine should face the risk of being bombed," said Dr. Mithqal Abutaha, the group's project manager, who was at another clinic at the time. "People had to come seeking health and support. Instead, they faced death."
In Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where those wounded and killed in the attack were taken, families' cries filled the halls.
Nidal Al-Nouri said he was talking to his 14-year-old daughter Sama yesterday about their hopes for a ceasefire to take place to be able to return to school.
"Sama's gone and the war remains. God willing this war will end with her death," he said.
Israel claimed that in its Thursday attack, it had struck a militant who took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks that triggered the war, although the military didn't provide evidence. It said it was aware of reports regarding a number of injured individuals and that the incident was under review.
