Gaza is facing a man-made drought as its water systems collapse amid ongoing Israeli assault on the besieged Palestinian enclave, the United Nations' children agency has said.
"Children will begin to die of thirst ... Just 40 percent of drinking water production facilities remain functional," UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told reporters in Geneva on Friday.
"We are way below emergency standards in terms of drinking water for people in Gaza," he added.
UNICEF also reported a 50 percent increase in children aged six months to 5 years admitted for treatment of malnutrition from April to May in Gaza, and half a million people going hungry.
It said the US-backed aid distribution system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was "making a desperate situation worse."
Brutal attacks on people seeking aid
On Friday, at least 25 people awaiting aid trucks or seeking aid were killed by Israeli fire south of Netzarim in central Gaza, according to local health authorities.
On Thursday, at least 51 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes, including 12 people who tried to approach a site operated by the GHF in central Gaza.
Elder, who was recently in Gaza, said he had many testimonials of women and children injured while trying to receive food aid, including a young boy who was wounded by a tank shell and later died of his injuries.
He said a lack of public clarity on when the sites, some of which are in combat zones, were open was causing mass casualty events.
"There have been instances where information (was) shared that a site is open, but then it's communicated on social media that they're closed, but that information was shared when Gaza's internet was down and people had no access to it," he said.
On Friday, at least 12 people were killed in an air strike on a house belonging to the Ayyash family in Deir Al-Balah, taking the day's death toll to 37.
