Gaza鈥檚 civil defence agency said Israeli troops killed 20 people waiting to collect food on Monday, the latest deadly incident near a US-backed aid centre in the Palestinian territory鈥檚 south.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that 鈥榯he Israeli occupation forces opened fire鈥� near the Al-Alam roundabout in the southern city of Rafah, where many were waiting to reach an aid distribution site.
Bassal said that 鈥�20 martyrs and more than 200 wounded by occupation gunfire鈥� were taken to nearby hospitals.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was looking into the report.
Israeli restrictions on media in the Gaza Strip and other difficulties in accessing some areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls provided by the civil defence agency.
According to the rescue agency, dozens of Palestinians have been killed while trying to reach distribution points operated by the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation since it began operating in late May.
The civil defence agency said more than 20 Palestinian were killed on Saturday near another GHF site.
Israel has faced mounting international pressure over humanitarian conditions in Gaza, which the United Nations described in May as 鈥榯he hungriest place on Earth鈥�.
Before the GHF began operations, Israel had enforced a total aid blockade on Gaza that lasted more than two months.
The UN humanitarian agency OCHA has said that Gaza鈥檚 鈥榚ntire population鈥� of more than 2 million people was at risk of famine.
The UN and major humanitarian groups have refused to cooperate with聽GHF聽over concerns it is designed to cater to Israeli military objectives, with an OCHA spokesperson recently calling the US-backed aid operation a 鈥榝ailure from a principled humanitarian standpoint鈥�.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised in a telephone call Sunday to do more to bring aid into war-ravaged Gaza.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Monday that 5,139 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on the territory on March 18 following a truce.
Israel cut off supplies into Gaza on March 2, sparking international condemnation.
The overall death toll in Gaza since the war broke out on October 7, 2023 has reached 55,432 people, according to the health ministry.
The war was triggered by an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to official Israeli figures.
