Israeli drone strike kills two Palestinian siblings in southern Gaza

An Israeli drone strike hit tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in the Muwasi camp in southern Gaza on Saturday, killing 15-year-old Islam Moussa and her 30-year-old brother, Abdullah Moussa, and wounding at least seven other people. Nasser hospital said the injured were brought there after the strike.

Relatives gathered in the hospital courtyard as the two bodies, wrapped in white burial shrouds, were carried away for burial. The deaths of Islam Moussa and Abdullah Moussa turned a military incident into a family catastrophe, with the hospital serving as the place where casualties were identified and the scale of the loss became visible.

The Israeli military acknowledged striking the Muwasi area and said it had targeted a Hamas militant, but it did not immediately provide further details. The strike landed in one of the places where displaced families have been forced to cluster after repeated evacuations, making the tents themselves part of the story. Muwasi, near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, has been treated as a refuge by many families even as humanitarian agencies have repeatedly described it as crowded, under-equipped and unsafe.

The attack came amid a wider humanitarian emergency in Gaza, where the United Nations says roughly 1.7 million Palestinians, about 80% of the population, are displaced across about 1,600 sites. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said conditions remain volatile and insecure as strikes continue daily, while aid agencies have warned of shortages of water, shelter, sanitation and basic services. UNRWA said it has been running primary health services through 75 mobile medical teams at 28 medical points in the Middle Area, Khan Younis, Al Mawasi and Gaza City, a sign of how heavily improvised the civilian safety net has become.

The violence also reached beyond the strike site, with Palestinians hearing a loud boom in Gaza City later in the day. For families in Muwasi and other displacement camps, the latest deaths reinforced a grim reality: a tent has not been enough to keep war out.