Israeli missile hit Gaza site as football match drew crowds

An Israeli missile slammed into a tent encampment in southern Gaza, just as displaced people had gathered to watch a football match at a school, eyewitnesses said on July 10.

At least 29 people, mostly women and children, were killed in the July 9 strike, said Palestinian officials. It took place as spectators crowded the school grounds in Abassan, east of Khan Younis, and hawkers sold smoothies and biscuits.

"They were watching a football match. There were injuries and martyrs. I witnessed this... people thrown around and body parts scattered, blood," said a young woman in Abassan, Ms Ghazzal Nasser.

"Everything was normal. People were playing, others were buying and selling (food and drinks). There was no sound of planes or anything," she added.

The Israeli military said it was reviewing reports that civilians were harmed. It said the incident occurred when it struck, with "precise munition", a Hamas fighter who took part in the Oct 7 raid on Israel that precipitated the Israeli assault on Gaza.

The military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it knew a football match had been going on when the strike was ordered.

At the nearby Nasser Hospital, dozens of Palestinians bade farewell to loved ones before burials.

"The schools were overcrowded with people and the street was full too; suddenly a missile hit and destroyed the whole place," said Ms Asmaa Qudeih, who lost some relatives in the attack.

"Bodies flew in the wind, body parts flew, I don't know how to describe it," she said.