The Executive Director of UNICEF, Catherine Russell, has expressed deep shock and sorrow after seven Palestinian children were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting a water distribution point in central Gaza. The children were queuing for water when the strike occurred on Sunday, 14 July 2025. Four additional civilians also lost their lives in the same attack.

In a strongly worded statement, Russell called the incident “a painful reminder that there is no safe place for children in Gaza,” urging the Israeli government to immediately review its rules of engagement to ensure civilian protection in line with international humanitarian law.

The tragedy follows a similar attack just days earlier, in which women and children were killed while waiting for food aid. Russell emphasised that the latest strike highlights both the growing threat to civilian life and the collapse of essential services, including access to clean water. With Gaza’s main desalination plant out of service, families are increasingly forced to depend on unsecured water points in exposed areas, now turned into deadly zones.

Russell also warned of a deepening nutrition crisis, noting that more than 5,800 children were diagnosed with acute malnutrition in June alone, over 1,000 of whom urgently need life-saving therapeutic care.

She called for a comprehensive and independent investigation into the attack and pressed for an urgent revision of military engagement protocols. UN data indicates that nearly 800 people, the majority of them women and children, have been killed since the end of May while trying to reach food aid, underscoring the deadly risks civilians face amid a spiralling humanitarian catastrophe.

Russell concluded her statement by stressing that continued impunity “will lead to catastrophic consequences for children in Gaza,” urging immediate and decisive international action.