DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (news agencies) — Three brothers in the Gaza Strip woke up early to run to a local clinic to get “sweets,” their word for the emergency food supplements distributed by aid groups. By the time their father woke up, two of the brothers had been fatally wounded by an Israeli strike and the third had lost an eye.
The strike outside the clinic on Thursday in the central city of Deir al-Balah killed 14 people, including 9 children, according to a local hospital, which had initially reported 10 children killed but later said one had died in a separate incident.
The Israeli military said it targeted a militant it said had taken part in the Hamas attack that ignited the 21-month war. Security camera footage appeared to show two young men targeted as they walked past the clinic where several people were squatting outside.
Hatem Al-Nouri’s four-year-old son, Amir, was killed immediately. His eight-year-old son, Omar, was still breathing when he reached the hospital but died shortly thereafter. He said that at first he didn’t recognize his third son, two-year-old Siraj, because his eye had been torn out.
“What did these children do to deserve this?” the father said as he broke into tears. “They were dreaming of having a loaf of bread.”
In a separate development, the Palestinian Health Ministry in the Israeli-occupied West Bank said a 23-year-old was beaten to death on Friday by Israeli settlers near the city of Ramallah. Further details were not immediately available. The Israeli military said it was looking into the report.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in recent weeks while trying to get food, according to local health officials. Experts say hunger is widespread among the territory’s 2 million Palestinians and that Israel’s blockade and military offensive have put them at risk of famine.
The international aid group Doctors Without Borders said it has recorded a “sharp and unprecedented rise” in acute malnutrition at two clinics it operates in Gaza, with more than 700 pregnant and breastfeeding women, and nearly 500 children, receiving outpatient therapeutic food.
“Our neonatal intensive care unit is severely overcrowded, with four to five babies sharing a single incubator,” Dr. Joanne Perry, a physician with the group, said in a statement. “This is my third time in Gaza, and I’ve never seen anything like this. Mothers are asking me for food for their children, pregnant women who are six months along often weigh no more than 40 kilograms (88 pounds).”
The Israeli military body in charge of civilian affairs in Gaza says it is allowing enough food to enter and blames the U.N. and other aid groups for not promptly distributing it.
Israel ended a ceasefire and renewed its offensive in March. It eased a 2 1/2 month blockade in May, but the U.N. and aid groups say they are struggling to distribute humanitarian aid because of Israeli military restrictions and a breakdown of law and order that has led to widespread looting.
A separate aid mechanism built around an American group backed by Israel has Palestinians running a deadly gantlet to reach its sites. Witnesses and health officials say hundreds have been killed by Israeli fire while heading toward the distribution points through military zones off limits to independent media.
The military has acknowledged firing warning shots at Palestinians who it says approached its forces in a suspicious manner.
The Israeli- and U.S.-supported Gaza Humanitarian Foundation denies there has been any violence in or around its sites. But two of its contractors told media that their colleagues have fired live ammunition and stun grenades as Palestinians scramble for food, allegations denied by the foundation.
The U.N. Human Rights Office said Thursday that it has recorded 798 killings near Gaza aid sites in a little over a month leading up to July 7. Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the office, said 615 were killed “in the vicinity of the GHF sites” and the remainder on convoy routes used by other aid groups.
