By Anadolu staff
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – Eight Palestinians were killed on Thursday in an Israeli strike targeting a group of civilians while filling water in Gaza City on Thursday, a medical source said.
Three other people were injured in the attack in the Shati refugee camp in western Gaza City, the source added.
According to witnesses, Israeli forces struck a group of people who gathered to fill bottles of water in the camp.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Israel early Thursday of genocide in the Gaza Strip by deliberately denying Palestinians access to safe water.
In its report, HRW said in its war, now in its second deadly year, the Israeli army has "deliberately destroyed and damaged water and sanitation infrastructure and water repair materials; and blocked the entry of critical water supplies" to Palestinians in war-torn Gaza.
“Water is essential for human life, yet for over a year the Israeli government has deliberately denied Palestinians in Gaza the bare minimum they need to survive,” said Tirana Hassan, an HRW executive director.
The international watchdog's report concluded that "Israeli authorities have intentionally created conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza in whole or in part."
Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, launched a genocidal war on Gaza that has so far killed over 45,100 people, most of them women and children, since an attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last month for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on Gaza.
*Writing by Ahmed Asmar