Gaza authorities say Israeli fire kills five, two children

Gazan authorities said Israeli fire killed at least five people on Monday, including two children, in several incidents across the Gaza Strip.

The civil defence rescue service, which operates under Hamas authority, said two Palestinians were killed at dawn when a tent was bombed in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza.

The civil defence and Khan Yunis's Nasser Hospital said a 10-year-old girl was killed by Israeli artillery fire north of Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza. The Israeli army told AFP it had no knowledge of the incidents.

The civil defence said a four-year-old was killed in an Israeli airstrike on al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. It said an entire residential block was damaged and that a mother and her child were rescued from under the rubble of another house.

The rescue service said one person was killed and five others were injured in another airstrike in Khan Yunis.

In a separate incident, a security source in Gaza City told AFP that Israeli warplanes fired three missiles at a water desalination plant in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, destroying it. Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem condemned the bombing, saying it was a further attempt to deprive Gazans of means of survival.

The Israeli army said it did not target the desalination plant but struck a nearby Hamas weapons storage facility. It said it struck two such depots on Monday, including another in Deir al-Balah, and said the facilities were inside mosques and used by Hamas to conceal and store weapons. The army said advance warnings were issued before the strikes to mitigate harm to civilians.

An October ceasefire has reduced but not halted violence in Gaza. Gaza's health ministry, which also operates under Hamas authority, says Israeli operations have killed 1,288 people since the ceasefire took effect. The United Nations considers the ministry's figures reliable. The Israeli army has reported five deaths in its ranks and one civilian contractor killed over the same period.