The IDF has released photos claiming to be proof that Fadi al-Wadiya, who was killed in an airstrike on Tuesday, was a “significant operative” in the Islamic Jihad group in Gaza. MSF has rejected the claims.
The Israeli military has released photos they claim show a staffer with the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) aid group wearing military fatigues at a gathering of Islamic Jihad militants in Gaza.
Fadi Al-Wadiya, 33, was killed in an attack on Gaza City on Tuesday, along with five other people, including three children, while he was cycling to the nearby MSF clinic, where he worked as a physiotherapist.
The aid group denied allegations that he was a militant in a statement on Wednesday, saying there were “no indications this is true”.
“Fadi was executed by an Israeli strike and no proof of any wrongdoing on his part has been shared with MSF. Only an independent investigation will be able to establish the facts,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, three airstrikes on the crowded Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza on Wednesday killed at least 18 people and wounded several others, according to a hospital director.
Two ambulances arrived at one of the sites hit in the Al Jurn neighbourhood, where dozens of men and boys gathered to search for victims.
At least four bodies were found.
The victims were taken to the Kamal Edwan Hospital, where its director, Dr Hosam Abu Safiya, said there were women and children among the killed without providing details.
Earlier this month, Israeli troops pulled out of the Jabaliya camp in northern Gaza after weeks of fighting with Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups caused widespread destruction.
First responders have recovered the bodies of 360 people, mostly women and children, killed during the battles.
Palestinians surrounded by sewage
In the stifling summer heat, Palestinians are being forced to trudge through water contaminated with sewage and find themselves surrounded by growing mounds of garbage in refugee camps for displaced families.
People are relieving themselves in burlap-covered pits, with nowhere nearby to wash their hands.
The territory’s ability to dispose of garbage, treat sewage and deliver clean water has been virtually decimated by eight brutal months of war between Israel and Hamas.
This has made living conditions worse and raised health risks for hundreds of thousands of people deprived of adequate shelter, food and medicine, aid groups say.
Hepatitis A cases are on the rise, and doctors fear that as warmer weather arrives, an outbreak of cholera is increasingly likely without dramatic changes to living conditions.
The UN, aid groups and local officials are scrambling to build latrines, repair water lines and bring desalination plants back online.