The Gaza Civil Defense Agency said Israeli forces opened fire on a Palestinian crowd trying to collect humanitarian aid in the war-torn Palestinian territory, killing 93 people and wounding dozens more.
Eighty were killed as aid trucks arrived in the north, and nine others were reportedly shot near a humanitarian aid site in Rafah in the south, where dozens of people had lost their lives just 24 hours earlier.
Four Palestinians were killed near another aid site in Khan Younis, also in the south, agency spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP.
The UN World Food Programme said its convoy of 25 trucks carrying food aid “encountered huge masses of hungry civilians under fire” near Gaza City, shortly after crossing from Israel and passing through checkpoints.
The Israeli military has disputed the death toll, saying soldiers fired warning shots “to eliminate an imminent threat” as thousands gathered near Gaza City.
The deaths of civilians seeking aid have become a regular occurrence in Gaza, with authorities blaming Israeli fire as the masses, facing chronic shortages of food and other basic necessities, flock in huge numbers to aid centers.
The UN said this month that nearly 800 aid seekers have been killed since the end of May, including those on aid convoy routes.
