Warning: Graphic footage below
On Thursday, a US-backed Israeli airstrike hit near a medical clinic in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah as civilians gathered to receive nutritional aid, killing 16 Palestinians, including 10 children and three women.
The clinic is run by Project HOPE, an American aid group, and the organization’s regional director, Natia Deisadze, confirmed that civilians were waiting to “receive essential nutrition support” at the time of the strike.
The New York Times said that it verified CCTV footage that showed a strike hit two men who were walking near a group of women and children. Smoke and dust filled the screen, and other footage shows dead and wounded women and children strewn along the side of the street.
Based on the CCTV footage and the video of the aftermath, there’s no evidence that the two men who were directly hit with the airstrike were armed. According to Reuters, the IDF claimed that it struck a Hamas “militant” who participated in the October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel but offered no evidence.
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce was asked about the massacre and referred the reporter to the state of Israel. “I can’t speak to that particular event, I would direct you to the country of Israel,” she said. Bruce claimed that the US “decries” civilian casualties but made clear the US will continue to back Israel.
“It’s a war. We stand by Israel, to say the least. And we also know that Israel, when it is due, investigates, and we’ll await to see what their actions will be,” Bruce said.
Mithqal Abutaha, Project HOPE’s project manager in Deir el-Balah, told The Washington Post that there was limited damage to the entrance of the clinic due to the airstrike. Abutaha said the clinic screens children and lactating mothers suffering under the Israeli blockade for malnutrition and provides them with supplements.
Israeli airstrikes also pounded other targets across the Gaza Strip on Thursday despite talk of a potential ceasefire deal. Gaza’s Health Ministry said that 82 Palestinians were killed and 247 were injured over the previous 24-hour period.
