Three Palestinians, including an eight-year-old girl, were killed in separate Israeli drone strikes in Gaza on Sunday, as officials warned that fuel shortages are forcing the closure of desalination plants and deepening the enclave’s water crisis.
An Israeli drone struck the Dream Palace hall west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, killing Akram Mohammed Mahmoud Abu Madi, 31, and Julia Khaled al-Balawi, 8, according to local sources.
Medical teams recovered the two bodies and transferred them to Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis along with several wounded people, a medical source told The New Arab.
The same source said Nasser Medical Complex received three casualties with varying injuries, all of whom were receiving treatment.
Earlier on Sunday, another Palestinian was killed and several others wounded when an Israeli drone targeted a tent sheltering displaced people inside a school in the Beach (Shati) refugee camp west of Gaza City.
A medical source told The New Arab that one body was recovered from the site following the strike and transferred to Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City, while some of the injured were treated at the scene because their wounds were minor.
A field source told the newspaper that the strike caused extensive damage to the school, which had already been partially destroyed during the war and was sheltering dozens of displaced families.
The Gaza Health Ministry said nine people killed and 41 wounded had arrived at hospitals across the territory during the previous 24 hours.
In its daily statistical report, the ministry said that since the ceasefire came into effect on 11 October last year, 1,021 people had been killed and 3,249 injured, while 784 bodies had also been recovered.
The ministry added that the overall death toll from Israel’s war on Gaza since 7 October 2023 had risen to 73,032, with 173,357 people injured.
The latest attacks came as authorities warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis, with fuel shortages forcing desalination plants to shut down.
Ali al-Batta, deputy head of the Gaza Municipalities Union and mayor of Khan Younis, told The New Arab that Gaza’s water sector was facing a “rapidly accelerating collapse” as desalination plants continued to cease operations because of severe shortages of fuel, generator oil and spare parts.
He said the territory requires around 40,000 cubic metres of desalinated water per day as a minimum to meet residents’ basic needs, but the current crisis was preventing that level from being achieved.
According to al-Batta, the amount of water currently being pumped is no more than 20 percent of what was available before the war, while ageing sewage infrastructure and fuel shortages are increasing the risk of a wider environmental and public health emergency.
