GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories — Gaza's civil defence agency said eight children were killed as they queued for nutritional supplements outside a health clinic in central Gaza on Thursday, as Israeli forces pounded the war-battered Palestinian territory.

 

The UN children's agency said one of the victims of the strike in Deir El Balah was a one-year-old boy whose mother said he had spoken his first words just hours earlier.

 

She was critically injured in the blast, it added.

 

"No parent should have to face such tragedy," UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said in a statement.

 

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

 

Gaza's civil defence agency said the children were among 17 victims in Deir El Balah, as a wave of bombings and shootings on Thursday killed at least 64 across the embattled territory.

 

US-based charity Project Hope, which runs the medical facility, said the dead and injured were waiting for it to open to receive treatment for malnutrition, infections and illness.

 

Its president and chief executive Rabih Torbay called the strike "a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and a stark reminder that no one and no place is safe in Gaza, even as ceasefire talks continue".

 

He added: "This cannot continue."

 

Yousef Al Aydi, 30, was among dozens of people -- most of them women and children -- in the queue.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

The Israeli military told AFP that it had struck a Hamas militant in Deir El Balah who had infiltrated Israel during the group's October 7, 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, had also been waiting for supplies at the Project Hope facility when the blast happened.

 

"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 is unable to independently verify the tolls and details due to media restrictions in Gaza.

 

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

 

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 northwest of 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 in a trickle of supplies, the United Nations said in early July.

 

The European Union on Thursday said the bloc had struck a deal with Israel to open up more crossings to increase aid into Gaza, as well as repair infrastructure and protect aid workers.

 

"We count on Israel to implement every measure agreed," EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas wrote on X.

 

The war began after Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, leading to the deaths of 1,219 people, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

 

Israel's strikes have killed at least 57,762 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

 

The United Nations deems the figures reliable.