Five children killed by Israeli drone strike on refugee camp in northern Gaza

Women and children are among the dead, according to the Palestinian civil defence agency.

LAST UPDATE | 14 Oct

FIVE CHILDREN WERE killed by an Israeli drone strike on the Al-Shati refugee camp last night, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.

“Our teams have recovered the bodies of five martyrs, all children, after an Israeli drone targeted a group of children playing in Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City,” said Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza’s Civil Defence.

“The bodies were transported to Al-Shifa Hospital, located in the western part of the city,” he said.

Elsewhere, at least 15 people were killed overnight at Nuseirat camp in central Gaza after an Israeli airstrike at a school for displaced Palestinians.

“The Al-Mufti school was bombarded with a large volley of Israeli artillery, resulting in an initial death toll of 15 martyrs, including children, women and entire families, and 50 wounded,” said a civil defence spokesperson.

“This school shelters hundreds of displaced people from different families, including some from Gaza, the south, and various parts of the Gaza Strip,” he added.

The Israeli military has said it was “looking into the reports”.

The vast majority of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced by the Israeli offensive into the region, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel last year. Many people have sought shelter and refuge in school buildings.

Israel’s military regularly accuses Hamas of hiding in the buildings, where often thousands of displaced Gazans seek shelter. Hamas have denied the accusations.

The attack comes just days after an Israeli air strike on a school killed at least 28 people in Gaza’s Deir el-Balah. Attacks overnight on the same town targeted hospitals.

The Israeli onslaught has killed at least 42,227 people over the past year, a majority of them civilians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The United Nations acknowledges the figures to be reliable.

Over the weekend, in north Gaza, Israel also attacked the town of Jabalia – resulting in the death of dozens of civilians. Reports suggest that Israel is also withholding humanitarian aid in the north of the region.

Taoiseach Simon Harris and Tánaiste Micheál Martin both accused the Israeli Government of committing war crimes in the area.