Palestinian Territory – Euro-Med Monitor's field team verified a video showing the Israeli army targeting a Palestinian girl as she tried to collect water in the courtyard of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. This crime is further damning evidence of Israel's deliberate killing of Palestinian children as part of a genocide that has continued for 23 consecutive months.
The video, released on Sunday, 17 August, shows the moment an Israeli drone fired a missile at 11-year-old Amna Ashraf al-Mufti as she carried an empty water jug in the hospital courtyard. Euro-Med Monitor's documentation confirms that the girl was killed on 21 December 2024.
It is evident from the footage that the victim was a young, unarmed child who posed no threat. Her only action was attempting to fetch water from the hospital courtyard after the Israeli blockade and supply cuts had deprived the overcrowded facility of water, despite it sheltering patients and displaced persons.
Despite her visibly young age, an Israeli drone fired a missile directly at al-Mufti, killing her instantly in an act that epitomises the unjustified brutality inflicted on Palestinian civilians
Despite her visibly young age, an Israeli drone fired a missile directly at al-Mufti, killing her instantly in an act that epitomises the unjustified brutality inflicted on Palestinian civilians.
This video evidence adds to eyewitness testimonies confirming that al-Mufti was not the only victim. Less than two hours later, Mohammed Abu Hajjaj was targeted in the same way while fetching water from the same hospital courtyard. Such incidents reveal a deliberate and repeated pattern of targeting unarmed civilians as they attempt to secure basic survival needs.
In his testimony to Euro-Med Monitor, the child's uncle, Ismail al-Mufti, 31, said: "The occupation forces besieged the Beit Lahia Project area in November 2024, and when the house next to us was bombed, we fled to Kamal Adwan Hospital."
"The army cut off the hospital's water supply, and we remained trapped inside. We could not endure more than a day without water because there were children among us. My niece, Amna, went out to fetch water from the hospital courtyard, only to be directly bombed. She was not the only one," he added. "With great difficulty, we pulled her body into the hospital. She was later buried next to it, until she was transferred to the Beit Lahia cemetery after the ceasefire began in January 2025."
The Israeli army killed al-Mufti's mother, Najlaa Fathi Hussein al-Mufti, and her 8-year-old brother, Baraa, on 17 May 2025 as they tried to flee the area. They were struck by direct shelling while placing their belongings in the vehicle meant to evacuate them, in yet another crime reflecting the deliberate targeting of civilians even during displacement.
This crime provides further damning evidence that the Israeli army deliberately targets and kills Palestinian children as part of a recurring pattern of systematic killing since the start of the genocide in Gaza in October 2023, which has claimed the lives of more than 18,000 children. Many were killed by live ammunition deliberately fired at the head and chest in civilian areas where no clashes were taking place, including children whose injuries were captured on camera and others killed while waiting for food aid at GHF-run distribution centres.
Al-Mufti's killing fits this pattern and aligns with testimonies from doctors and surgeons in Gaza, who reported repeated cases of children with precise entry wounds in vital areas of the body. These injuries were neither random nor the result of crossfire but deliberate, targeted gunfire against unarmed children who posed no threat.
The nature of the facility as a civilian hospital, the victim's status as a child carrying a water jug, and the weapon used, a drone firing highly accurate guided missiles that allow the operator to clearly identify and monitor the target, all categorically negate any claim of threat, military necessity, or even doubt. These factors confirm that the decision to kill was made with full awareness, rendering the crime deliberate and premeditated, and constituting a grave violation of international humanitarian law, particularly the principles of distinction and proportionality. It is, in itself, a war crime and part of the systematic pattern of ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip.
The deliberate targeting of Palestinian children is a central and horrific pillar of the ongoing genocide. Their killing reflects a calculated strategy to destroy the future of the Palestinian people by eliminating their young generation, disrupting natural reproduction, and rendering the group unable to survive or preserve its identity. This leads to the erasure of Palestinian identity and undermines its capacity to endure and prosper.
This crime is part of a recurring pattern carried out by the Israeli army, most of which are not documented by video or even through field monitoring due to Israel's deliberate targeting of witnesses and destruction of evidence as part of a systematic policy to obscure the facts and obstruct international investigations and accountability. The absence of video documentation does not negate the crime, as its material and human consequences remain and constitute compelling evidence of the scale and gravity of the violations.
International organisations concerned with children's rights must take urgent and effective measures to ensure that Israel and its leaders are held accountable for these horrific crimes.
The United Nations and relevant bodies must ensure that Israel remains on the blacklist for grave violations against children in armed conflicts in future reports and must refrain from politicising UN work or yielding to diplomatic pressure to remove it, despite ongoing widespread violations against Palestinian children. Removing Israel from the list would amount to rewarding its crimes and encouraging the continuation of genocide against Palestinian children.
All States, individually and collectively, must fulfil their legal obligations and act urgently to stop this genocide in Gaza, taking every feasible measure to protect Palestinian civilians there. They must enforce Israel's adherence to international law and the rulings of the International Court of Justice and hold Israel accountable for its crimes against Palestinians.
This includes, without waiver, enforcing the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for the Israeli Prime Minister and former Minister of Defence at the earliest opportunity and surrendering them to international justice, upholding the principle that no one is immune from prosecution for international crimes.
The international community is urged to impose economic, diplomatic, and military sanctions on Israel for their grave and systematic breaches of international law; these sanctions should include comprehensive arms embargoes and the suspension of all forms of political, financial, military, and intelligence cooperation. In addition, Euro-Med Monitor calls for freezing the assets of responsible Israeli and any complicit EU officials, banning their travel, halting their military and security companies' access to international markets, and suspending trade privileges and bilateral agreements that facilitate Israel's ongoing Western-backed crimes against the Palestinian people.
