Israeli drone strike kills Palestinian girl, 8, on first school day in Gaza

An Israeli drone strike on a civilian vehicle in western Gaza City killed eight-year-old Wafaa Yousef Nabil Akila and her father, Youssef Nabil Rabah Akila, on Sunday, hours after she attended her first day of the new school year. The strike occurred near the Hamid intersection, according to medical officials at al-Shifa hospital, and wounded six other Palestinians.

Photographs circulated on social media showed Wafaa smiling in a blue school uniform and giving a thumbs-up before the attack. Footage from the scene revealed her schoolbooks scattered across the charred wreckage, while bystanders held strands of the child's hair. "This is all that's left, world," one man said. "What truce are you talking about?"

“"This is all that's left, world. What truce are you talking about?"”

Separate Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip on the same day killed at least three other Palestinians and wounded several more, according to local and medical sources. An artillery strike on the Havle School sheltering displaced people in Deir el-Balah killed one child. Gunfire near Palestine Stadium in Gaza City killed a young man. A drone strike on a car in the En-Nasr neighborhood killed two passersby, and another strike on Shati Refugee Camp wounded four.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said the death toll from Israeli ceasefire violations has reached 1,344 with 4,481 wounded. The Palestinian Statistics Center reports that children account for more than 30 percent of those killed, with 21,283 children dead and over 44,000 wounded since the war began. The Education Ministry had announced the school year would start on 16 September, but many schools opened early in tent classrooms amid widespread destruction.

The Israeli military claimed the drone strike targeted a "Hamas militant." Residents and online commentators said the alleged ceasefire has never taken effect, with civilians continuing to die daily. "There has been no ceasefire," one witness said. "Every day there are massacres. Every day children are dying."