Airstrike Children Killed at Water Station as IDF Blames 'Technical Error'

An Israeli airstrike has killed at least 10 people, including six children, who were waiting to collect water in Gaza, Palestinian health officials have said.

- Rory Carroll

A separate airstrike yesterday hit a home, killing nine people, and 31 others were shot dead near an aid distribution site on Saturday, marking another bloody weekend as the conflict's death toll exceeded 58,000.

Witnesses said a drone fired a missile at a crowd holding empty jerry cans beside a water tanker in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. About 20 children and 14 adults were lined up when the strike occurred, Ramadan Nassar, who lives in the area, told the Associated Press. Al-Awda hospital received 10 bodies, including six children, health officials said.

The Israel Defense Forces claimed a "technical error" had caused a strike aimed at an Islamic Jihad "terrorist" to fall dozens of meters from the target, and the incident was under review. The nine people killed in the separate strike on the home in Zawaida also included children.

The 31 Palestinians shot dead on Saturday were on their way to a distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an Israeli-backed logistics group, near Rafah in southern Gaza, according to hospital officials and witnesses.

The Red Cross said its field hospital had recorded its largest influx of dead in more than a year of operation after the shootings, and that the overwhelming majority of the more than 100 people injured had gunshot wounds.