Israel kills 12 Palestinians waiting for drinking water in central Gaza, including 8 children

Twelve people, including eight children, were killed on Sunday in an Israeli airstrike on a water distribution point in Nuseirat, central Gaza. 

The attack, one of dozens of airstrikes launched on the same day, represents the latest in a series of blows in which Israel has systematically undermined access to water for Palestinians in the strip, the Gaza Government Media Office said on Monday.

Footage from the site shortly after the attack showed a large number of injured from among the crowds that had gathered with gallon containers to fetch water. Civilians could be seen carrying the injured, many of whom were young children, away from the scene.

A picture from the targeted site on Monday showed the charred remains of a water tanker truck on a road in northeast Nuseirat. The driver was killed in the airstrike, according to Al Jazeera correspondent Ramy Abu Taima, who said that the tanker was filled with drinking water. 

Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat published an initial report on Monday announcing the arrival of "eight martyrs, including six children, and 16 injuries, including seven children, as a result of the Israeli Occupation targeting a water distribution point in the New Camp area."

Gaza’s Government Media Office updated the toll of the attack on Monday to twelve people in total.

An Israeli military spokesperson, meanwhile, reportedly claimed that the missile with which it targeted a water distribution point had missed its target, which was a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The Israeli Broadcasting Authority quoted the spokesperson as saying that the incident is under review.

But over 110 freshwater filling stations have been targeted by Israeli aircraft over the past two years, the Government Media Office said, killing hundreds of civilians as they queue for drinking water. 

The attacks are part of the "systematic and deliberate war of deprivation" of people in the Gaza Strip, in which "water is a collective weapon of war to exterminate the population,"the media office said. 

Over 700 water wells have also been destroyed, depriving more than one million Palestinians of access to clean water. The Mekorot water supply, the last major source of water supply to the Gaza Strip, has been cut off since January 23, according to the office statement.