Daijiworld Media Network - Gaza

Gaza, Aug 25: At least five Palestinians, including two children, were killed in Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip on Monday, according to Gaza authorities.

The civil defence rescue service, which operates under the Hamas administration, said two Palestinians were killed at dawn when a tent was bombed in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza.

A 10-year-old girl was also killed by Israeli artillery fire north of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to the civil defence service and Nasser Hospital in the city.

The Israeli military told AFP that it had no information regarding the reported incidents.

In another incident, a four-year-old child was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, the civil defence service said.

The rescue service said an entire residential block was damaged in the strike and that a mother and her child were rescued from beneath the rubble of another house.

One person was also killed and five others injured in another airstrike in Khan Younis, according to the civil defence rescue service.

Meanwhile, a security source in Gaza City said Israeli warplanes fired three missiles at a water desalination plant in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, destroying the facility.

Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem condemned the reported attack, describing it as another attempt to deprive Palestinians in Gaza of essential means of survival.

The Israeli military denied targeting the desalination plant, saying its forces had instead struck a nearby Hamas weapons storage facility.

The military said the facility was one of two weapons depots targeted on Monday and alleged that the sites had been established inside two mosques in the Gaza Strip.

“These facilities were used by Hamas terrorists to conceal and store weapons,” the Israeli military said, adding that advance warnings had been issued to residents before the strikes in an effort to reduce civilian casualties.

The military said the second facility was located in Deir Al-Balah.

An October ceasefire has significantly reduced, but not completely stopped, violence in the Gaza Strip.

According to Gaza's health ministry, which operates under the Hamas-run administration, Israeli military operations have killed 1,288 Palestinians since the ceasefire came into effect. The ministry's casualty figures are generally considered reliable by the United Nations.

The Israeli military has reported five deaths among its personnel during the same period, along with the death of one civilian contractor.