DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) – European officials reached a new deal with Israel to allow desperately needed food and fuel into Gaza, the European Union’s foreign policy chief said Thursday, hours after an Israeli airstrike killed 14 people, including 9 children, waiting for help outside a medical clinic.
The children’s deaths drew outrage from humanitarian groups even as Israel allowed the first delivery of fuel to Gaza in more than four months, though still less than a day’s supply, according to the United Nations.
“The killing of families trying to access life-saving aid is unconscionable,” UNICEF’s chief, Catherine Russell, said. “These were mothers seeking a lifeline for their children after months of hunger and desperation.”
The Israeli military claimed it was targeting a “militant” when it struck near the clinic.
Security camera footage outside the clinic in the central Gaza city of Deir al Balah showed about a dozen people squatting in front of the clinic when a projectile exploded a few meters (yards) away, leaving bodies scattered.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to leave Washington after meetings with President Donald Trump, apparently without finalizing a temporary ceasefire advocated by the White House.
The deal announced by European officials could result in “more crossings open, aid and food trucks entering Gaza, repair of vital infrastructure and protection of aid workers,” said Kaja Kallas, the 27-member EU’s top diplomat.
“We count on Israel to implement every measure agreed,” she said in a post on social media.
Aid groups say Israeli military restrictions and recurring violence have made it difficult to deliver assistance in Gaza. Experts have warned the strip is at risk of famine, 21 months into the Israel-Hamas war.
Kallas said the deal would reactivate aid corridors from Jordan and Egypt and reopen community bakeries and kitchens across Gaza.
She said measures would be taken to prevent Hamas from allegedly diverting aid. Israel has accused Hamas of stealing aid and selling it to finance its activities, but the U.N. says there is no evidence for widespread diversion.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar acknowledged the deal while at a conference in Vienna, saying it followed “our dialogue with the EU” and that it includes “more trucks, more crossings and more routes for the humanitarian efforts.”
Neither Saar not Kallas said whether the aid would go through the U.N.-run system or an alternative, U.S.- and Israeli-backed mechanism that has been marred by violence and controversy.
The U.N. said Israel had permitted a team to bring 75,000 liters of fuel into Gaza, the first delivery allowed in 130 days. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric warned it wasn’t enough to cover a single day’s energy needs in the territory and that services would shut down without more shipments.
Israeli strikes pounded the Gaza Strip overnight and early Thursday, killing at least 36 Palestinians, local hospitals and aid workers said. The Israeli military said one soldier was killed in Gaza.
Those killed outside the clinic were waiting for nutritional supplements, according to Project Hope, an aid group that runs the facility.
“No child waiting for food and medicine should face the risk of being bombed,” said Dr. Mithqal Abutaha, the group’s project manager.
The aid group had initially said 15 people were killed, including 10 children. But Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies, later said that 14 people were killed, including nine children and three women.
At the morgue of Al-Aqsa Hospital, families prayed over the bodies of their loved ones, laid across the floor.
Omar Meshmesh held the body of his 3-year-old niece Aya Meshmesh. “What did she ever do? Did she throw a rocket at them or throw something at them? … she’s an innocent child.”
Israel’s military, which incessantly targets civilians, including children, said it struck near the clinic while targeting a “militant” it said had entered Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. It said it was investigating.
Gaza’s Nasser Hospital reported a total of 21 deaths in airstrikes in the southern town of Khan Younis and the nearby coastal area of Muwasi. It said three children and their mother, as well as two other women, were among the dead.
Readying to leave Washington, Netanyahu said Israel continues to pursue a deal for a 60-day pause in the fighting and the release of half of the 50 hostages remaining in Gaza, many of them believed dead.
Once that deal is in place, Israel is prepared to negotiate a permanent end to the war, Netanyahu said – but only on condition that Hamas disarms and gives up its governing and military capabilities in Gaza.
If this “is not achieved through negotiations in 60 days, we will achieve it in other ways; by using force, the force of our heroic army,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.
Still, U.S. officials held out hope that restarting high-level negotiations – mediated by Egypt and Qatar and including White House envoy Steve Witkoff – could bring progress.
“We’re closer than we’ve been in quite a while and we’re hopeful, but we also recognize there’s still some challenges in the way,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters during a stop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Israel’s genocidal war has killed over 57,500 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Health Ministry, displaced almost the entire population of more than 2 million people, sparked a humanitarian crisis in the enclave and left much of the territory in ruins.
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