Girl, 10, ‘shot in chest by Israeli forces exterior United Nations workplace in Gaza’ after airstrike killed 4 support staff

A 10-year-old Palestinian girl has allegedly been shot in the chest by IDF forces close to the United Nations office in Gaza. 

The reported shooting comes after four aid workers were killed in Israeli strikes in the terrority on Saturday. 

A shocking picture appears to show the child on her back on the ground surrounded by UN workers in blue vests after it was claimed she was shot in the chest while crossing an Israeli checkpoint in the south of Gaza. 

The post said that workers from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stabilised the girl before they took her to a hospital. 

The incident comes a day after four aid workers were killed in air strikes. 

In a OCHA statement from Muhannad Hadi, the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said three of the victims were from World Central Kitchen and a fourth was from Save the Children who was killed in a separate strike.

Mr Hadi said: ‘My deepest condolences go to their families, friends, and colleagues who continue to risk their lives daily to support the people of Gaza.’ 

World Central Kitchen (WCK) said it was ‘urgently seeking more details’ after Israel‘s military said it targeted an employee who was part of the Hamas October 7 attacks.

The charity said it was ‘heartbroken’ and added it had ‘no knowledge’ that anyone in the car had alleged ties to the terrorist group. 

It said it was pausing operations in Gaza following the strike, adding that it was working with incomplete information and was urgently seeking more details.

The Israeli military in a statement said the alleged October 7 attacker took part in the assault on the kibbutz of Nir Oz, and it asked ‘senior officials from the international community’ and the WCK to clarify how he had come to work for the charity.

The family of the man, Ahed Azmi Qdeih, rejected the allegations as ‘false’, and confirmed in a statement he had worked with the charity. 

‘We are heartbroken to share that a vehicle carrying World Central Kitchen colleagues was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza,’ it said in a statement posted on X. 

‘World Central Kitchen had no knowledge that any individual in the vehicle had alleged ties to the October 7th Hamas attack.’

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that three employees of the charity were killed in the strike, with medics saying a total of five people were killed.

The strike highlights the dangerous work of delivering aid in Gaza, which has seen over 330 humantrains workers killed since the conflict began in October last year.

The war has also displaced much of the 2.3million population and caused widespread hunger.  

In April, a strike on a WCK aid convoy killed seven workers – three British citizens, Polish and Australian nationals, a Canadian-American dual national and a Palestinian. 

The Israeli military called it a mistake with the strike prompting an international outcry.

Another Palestinian WCK worker was killed in August by shrapnel from an Israeli airstrike, the group said.

A different Israeli airstrike on Saturday hit a car near a food distribution point in Khan Younis, killing 13 people, including children. Nasser hospital in Khan Younis received the bodies.

‘They were distributing aid, vegetables, and we saw the missile landing,’ witness Rami Al-Sori said. A woman sat on the ground and wept.

Save the Children said a local employee was killed in one of the Khan Younis airstrikes while returning from a mosque.

And the director of Kamal Adwan hospital reported a strike in Tal al Zaatar in Beit Lahiya in the north where Israeli forces are operating, and estimated based on witness accounts that well over 100 dead were under the rubble. He said the area remained inaccessible.

It comes as Hamas released a new hostage video on Saturday of Israeli-American citizen Edan Alexander. 

Speaking under duress, Alexander referred to being held for 420 days and mentioned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent $5million offer for the hostages’ return.

‘The prime minister is supposed to protect his soldiers and citizens, and you abandoned us,’ Alexander said.

Netanyahu’s office said that he spoke with Alexander’s family after the release of the ‘brutal psychological warfare video’ that held ‘an important and exciting sign of life.’

‘(Netanyahu) reassured me and promised that now, after reaching an arrangement in Lebanon, conditions are right to free you all and bring you home,’ Alexander’s mother, Yael, told demonstrators in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening.

A statement from US National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett called the hostage video ‘a cruel reminder of Hamas’s terror against citizens of multiple countries, including our own’.

‘The war in Gaza would stop tomorrow and the suffering of Gazans would end immediately – and would have ended months ago – if Hamas agreed to release the hostages,’ it said.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 44,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who don’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in their count but say over half the dead were women and children.

While efforts for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have faltered, the US and France-brokered deal for Lebanon appears to be holding since Wednesday.

On Saturday, Israel’s military said that it struck sites used to smuggle weapons from Syria to Lebanon after the ceasefire took effect. 

There was no immediate comment from Syrian authorities or Hezbollah. Israeli aircraft have struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon several times, citing truce violations.

Israel’s strike in Syria came as insurgents breached its largest city, Aleppo, bringing fresh uncertainty to the region.

The truce between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah calls for an initial two-month ceasefire in which the militants should withdraw north of Lebanon’s Litani River and Israeli forces should return to their side of the border.

Many Lebanese, some of the 1.2million displaced, streamed home despite warnings by the Israeli and Lebanese militaries to avoid certain areas.

‘Day by day, we will return to our normal lives,’ said Mustafa Badawi, a cafe owner in Tyre.