Photo used for representational purposes. Displaced Palestinians receive humanitarian aid packages from a US-backed foundation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on June 10, 2025. Photo by AFP.
Gaza City, Palestinian Territories: The Gaza civil defence agency said Israeli forces opened fire on people waiting to enter a US-backed food distribution centre on Wednesday, killing 31 and wounding hundreds.
"We transported at least 31 martyrs and about 200 wounded as a result of Israeli tank and drone fire on thousands of citizens... on their way to receive food from the American aid centre," civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
The Israeli army did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.
Bassal said thousands of Palestinians had been gathering since 2 am (2300 GMT Tuesday) in the hope of reaching the US and Israeli-backed food distribution centre.
"Israeli tanks fired several times, then at around 5:30 am intensified their fire, coinciding with heavy fire from drones targeting civilians," he said.
Mohammad Abu Salima, head of Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital, told AFP it had received the bodies of 24 people killed while waiting to enter the aid centre and was treating 96 who had been wounded.
Al-Awda hospital, in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, said in a statement that it had received seven bodies and was treating 112 people who had been wounded in the same incident.
There have been a series of deadly shootings since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) first opened aid distribution points in the Palestinian territory on May 27, as Israel faced mounting international condemnation over the humanitarian conditions.
Israel recently allowed some deliveries to resume after barring them for more than two months and began working with the newly formed, US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
But UN agencies and other aid organisations have criticised the GHF and the United Nations refuses to work with it, citing concerns over its practices and neutrality.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Tuesday that "Israeli military operations have intensified in recent days, with mass casualties reported".
The health ministry in Gaza says at least 54,981 people, the majority of them civilians, have been killed in the territory since the start of the war.
The United Nations considers the figures reliable.
