One-year-old boy spoke his first words hours before he was killed by Israeli strike in Gaza

ISRAELI FORCES KILLED at least 66 people in Gaza today, including multiple children, one of whom was a one-year-old boy whose mother said had spoken his first words just hours before he died. 

Ten children were killed while they and their mothers were waiting to receive nutritional supplements from UNICEF’s Project Hope in Deir el-Balah. 

UNICEF’s executive director Catherine Russell said the mothers were seeking “a lifeline for their children after months of hunger and desperation”. 

Among those hit by the strike was Donia, whose one-year-old boy Mohammed was killed.

“She said he spoke his first words to her just hours earlier,” Russell said.

“Donia now lies in a hospital bed, critically injured by the blast, clutching Mohammed’s tiny shoe. No parent should have to face such tragedy.”

Russell said this was another example of the “cruel reality” of life for children and families in Gaza. 

“The killing of families trying to access life-saving aid is unconscionable,” she added.

The US-based charity Project Hope, which runs the facility, said the victims were waiting for the clinic to open to receive treatment for malnutrition, infections and illness. The charity gave a toll of 15 dead, including 10 children and two women.

Its president and chief executive Rabih Torbay called the strike “a blatant violation of international humanitarian law.”

Yousef Al-Aydi, 30, was one of the few men in the queue.

“Suddenly, we heard the sound of a drone approaching, and then the explosion happened,” he told the AFP news agency by phone.

The ground shook beneath our feet, and everything around us turned into blood and deafening screams.

Israel has expanded its military operations in Gaza, where the war has created dire humanitarian conditions for the population of more than two million people.

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The Israeli military told AFP that it targeted a Hamas militant in Deir el-Balah who had infiltrated Israel during the group’s 7 October 2023 attack.

It said it “regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and operates to minimise harm as much as possible”, adding the incident was under review.

‘Killed instantly’ 

Mohammed Abu Ouda, 35, was also in the queue at Project Hope. “What was our fault? What was the fault of the children?” he asked.

“I saw a mother hugging her child on the ground, both motionless – they were killed instantly.”

AFP was unable to independently verify the tolls and details because Israel does not allow media access to Gaza. 

Four people were killed and several injured in a separate pre-dawn air strike on a home in Al-Bureij camp in central Gaza, civil defence agency official Mohammed al-Mughair said.

AFP footage from Al-Bureij showed a family including three young children sitting among rubble outside their tattered tent after an air strike hit a house next door.

Elsewhere, three people, including a woman, were killed by Israeli gunfire on civilians near an aid centre in the southern city of Rafah, the civil defence agency said.

More than 600 people have been killed around aid distributions and convoys in Gaza since late May, when Israel began allowing a trickle of supplies, the United Nations said in early July.

Soldiers returning from Gaza have told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that their superiors ordered them to fire on unarmed civilians often.

The European Union said today it had struck a deal with Israel to open more crossings for aid, as well as to repair infrastructure and protect aid workers. 

Israel’s war on Gaza has now killed at least 57,762 people since the Hamas-led attack of October 2023, most of them civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry.

With reporting from AFP

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