At least 38 Palestinians were killed on overnight and into Wednesday in the Gaza Strip while seeking aid from United Nations convoys and sites run by an Israeli-backed American contractor, local health officials said.
The Israeli military said it had fired warning shots when crowds approached its forces.
The latest deaths came as Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu was expected to announce further military action – and possibly plans for Israel to reoccupy Gaza fully.
Mr Netanyahu is scheduled to discuss military plans for Gaza with other ministers on Thursday.
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Experts say Israel’s continuing military offensive and blockade are already pushing the territory of two million Palestinians into famine.
Mr Netanyahu’s far-right coalition allies have long called for the war to be expanded, for Israel to take over Gaza eventually, relocate much of its population and rebuild Jewish settlements there.
At least 28 Palestinians were killed overnight and into Wednesday in the Morag Corridor, an Israeli military zone in southern Gaza where UN convoys have been repeatedly overwhelmed by looters and desperate crowds in recent days and where witnesses say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire.
The Israeli military said troops fired warning shots as Palestinians advanced towards them and it said it was not aware of any casualties.
Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies, said another four people were killed in the Teina area, on a route leading to a site in southern Gaza run by the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an American contractor.
The Al-Awda Hospital said it received the bodies of six people killed near a GHF site in central Gaza.
Another 12 people were killed in Israeli air strikes, the two hospitals said.
The GHF said there were no violent incidents at or near its sites.
The military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas because its militants are entrenched in heavily populated areas.
Israel facilitated the establishment of four GHF sites in May after blocking the entry of all food, medicine and other goods for two-and-a-half months.
Israeli and US officials said a new system was needed to prevent Hamas from siphoning off humanitarian aid.
The UN, which has delivered aid to hundreds of distribution points across Gaza throughout the war when conditions allowed, has rejected the new system, saying it forced Palestinians to travel long distances and risk their lives for food.
The UN said the arrangements also allowed Israel to control who gets aid, potentially using it to advance plans for further mass displacement.
The UN human rights office said last week that 1,400 Palestinians have been killed seeking aid since May, mostly near GHF sites but also along UN convoy routes where trucks have been overwhelmed by crowds.
It says nearly all were killed by Israeli fire.
The GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Israeli military said it has only fired warning shots when crowds threatened its forces. The GHF said its armed contractors have only used pepper spray and fired into the air on some occasions to prevent deadly crowding at its sites.
Israel’s blockade and military offensive have made it nearly impossible for anyone to safely deliver aid.
Aid groups say recent Israeli measures to facilitate more assistance are far from sufficient.
Hospitals on Wednesday recorded four more malnutrition-related deaths over the previous 24 hours, bringing the total to 193 people, including 96 children, since the war began in October 2023, the Gaza Health Ministry said.
Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the October 7th, 2023, attack on southern Israel and abducted another 251.
Most hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Of the 50 still held in Gaza, about 20 are believed to be alive.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children.
The ministry is part of the now largely defunct Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals.
The UN and independent experts consider it the most reliable source for the number of war casualties. – AP
