Gaza officials say at least 27 killed by Israeli fire near aid centre

Palestinian health officials and witnesses say Israeli forces fired on people as they headed toward an aid distribution site on Tuesday, killing at least 27, in the third such incident in three days.

The Israeli military said it fired “near a few individual suspects” who left the designated route, approached its forces, and ignored warning shots.

It said it was looking into the reports of casualties.

The near-daily shootings come after the Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) established aid distribution points inside Israeli military zones, which it says is designed to circumvent Hamas.

Palestinians are now forced to walk long distances to collect the aid and then carry the heavy boxes back to their shelters.

The United Nations has rejected the new system, saying it doesn't address Gaza's mounting hunger crisis and allows Israel to use aid as a weapon.

Israel's military previously said it fired warning shots at suspects who approached its forces early Sunday and Monday. Palestinian health officials and witnesses said 34 people were killed.

The army denies opening fire directly on civilians or blocking them from reaching the aid sites.

The GHF says there has been no violence in or around the centres, but on Tuesday, acknowledged that the Israeli military was investigating whether civilians had been wounded in an area that was beyond its “secure distribution site”.

The shootings all occurred at the Flag Roundabout, about a kilometre from one of the GHF’s distribution sites in the now mostly uninhabited southern city of Rafah.

The entire area is an Israeli military zone where journalists have no access outside of army-approved embeds.

Hisham Mhanna, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said its field hospital in Rafah received 184 wounded people, 19 of whom were declared dead on arrival and 8 more who later died of their wounds.

Rasha al-Nahal, a witness, said "we see people getting killed in front of us and end up leaving empty-handed".

She said she counted more than a dozen dead and several wounded along the road. She said she also found no aid when she arrived at the distribution hub, and that Israeli forces fired at them as they were returning.

An Associated Press reporter who arrived at the Red Cross field hospital at around 6 a.m. saw wounded people being transferred to other hospitals by ambulance.

Outside, people were passing by on their way back from the aid hub, mostly empty-handed, while empty flour bags stained with blood lay on the ground.

The UN human rights office has described the near-daily attacks on people trying to access food aid as “unconscionable” and has demanded an impartial investigation into the killings.