Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that “the (Israeli) occupation forces opened fire” near the Al-Alam roundabout in the southern city of Rafah, where many were waiting to reach an aid distribution site.
Ahmed al-Farra, head of the paediatric department at Nasser Hospital in the nearby city of Khan Yunis, told AFP that people “are hungry, they didn’t get any food since nearly four months ago”.
“All the borders are closed and this is the only way to get aid,“ Farra said of US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) sites.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.
In a statement on X, it said it was “the highest number received by the Red Cross Field Hospital in one mass casualty incident”.
Israel has faced mounting international pressure over humanitarian conditions in Gaza, which the United Nations described in May as “the hungriest place on Earth”.
The UN and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the organisation citing neutrality issues they say violate humanitarian principles.
Following previous incidents around GHF sites, the Israeli military has said its troops fired warning shots and were reacting to people approaching them in a way they considered threatening.
The ICRC said in its statement that “civilians continue to be killed and injured as intense hostilities continue. Due to the ongoing restrictions of humanitarian assistance, people are also struggling to access basic goods, including fuel”.
Of those, 5,139 have been killed since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18 following a truce.
The war was triggered by an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to official Israeli figures.
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