Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli attacks killed 43 Palestinians, including at a market and a water distribution point, as talks for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas stalled.
At least eight Palestinians, most of them children, were killed and more than a dozen were wounded in central Gaza when they went to collect water, local officials said, in an Israeli attack which the military claimed missed its target.
Israel claimed the missile had intended to hit a militant in the area but that a malfunction had caused it to fall and detonate "dozens of metres from the target".
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"The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians," it claimed in a statement, adding that the incident was under review.
The strike hit a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp, killing six children and injuring 17 others, said Ahmed Abu Saifan, an emergency physician at Al-Awda Hospital.
Water shortages in Gaza have worsened sharply in recent weeks, with fuel shortages causing desalination and sanitation facilities to close, making people dependent on collection centres where they can fill up their plastic containers.
At least 11 people were killed by an Israeli attack on a market in Gaza city, including a prominent hospital consultant, Ahmad Qandil, Palestinian media reported.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attack.
Gaza's health ministry said that more than 58,000 people had been killed since the start of Israel’s war between Israel in October 2023, with 139 people added to the death toll over the past 24 hours.
The ministry said more than half of those killed are women and children.
Talks stalled
Negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire appeared to be deadlocked, with the two sides divided over the extent of an eventual Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian and Israeli sources said at the weekend.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to convene ministers late to discuss the latest developments in the talks, an Israeli official said.
The indirect talks over a US proposal for a 60-day ceasefire are being held in Doha, but optimism that surfaced last week of a looming deal has largely faded, with both sides accusing each other of intransigence.
Mr Netanyahu claimed Israel would not back down from its core demands - releasing all the hostages still in Gaza, destroying Hamas and ensuring Gaza will never again be a threat to Israel.
Israel’s war began on 7 October 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages into Gaza.
At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages there are believed to still be alive.
Mr Netanyahu and his ministers were also set to discuss a plan to displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to the southern area of Rafah.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel described it as a new "humanitarian city".
However, it is likely to draw international criticism for forced displacement.
An Israeli source briefed on discussions in Israel said that the plan was to establish the complex in Rafah during the ceasefire, if it is reached.
A Palestinian source familiar with the truce talks said yesterday that Hamas rejected withdrawal maps which Israel proposed, because they would leave around 40% of the territory under Israeli control, including all of Rafah.
Israel's war in Gaza has displaced almost the entire population of more than 2 million people and Palestinians say nowhere is safe in the coastal enclave.
This morning a missile hit a house in Gaza city where a family had moved to after receiving an evacuation order from their home in the southern outskirts.
"My aunt, her husband and the children, are gone. What is the fault of the children who died in an ugly bloody massacre at dawn?" said Anas Matar, standing in the rubble of the building.
"They came here, and they were hit. There is no safe place in Gaza," he said.
