Israeli airstrike kills four children on Gaza beach

Iframe Code

#452221476 / gettyimages.com

An Israeli airstrike on Wednesday killed four children — all members of the same family — and wounded several others on a Gaza beach in front of a hotel packed with foreign journalists. The first shell hit around 4 p.m. local time, while a second strike hit survivors as they ran up the beach toward the safety of the hotel.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The Guardian's Peter Beaumont, who watched the strikes hit from the hotel terrace, called it a "personal low point" to have administered first aid, along with other journalists, to wounded children. He offered this deeply distressing account of the attack:

Nearly 200 Palestinians have died in the conflict so far, an estimated 80 percent of whom were civilians, according to the United Nations; Israel has suffered one casualty.