Deir al-Balah, 24 June

Israeli forces and drones opened fire toward hundreds of people waiting for aid trucks in central Gaza early Tuesday, killing at least 25 people, Palestinian witnesses and hospitals said.

Responding to an Associated Press inquiry, the military said it was reviewing reports of casualties from Israeli fire after a group of people approached troops in an area adjunct to the east-west Netzarim corridor, which bisects Gaza.

The Awda hospital in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, which received the victims, said the Palestinians were waiting for the trucks on the Salah al-Din Road south of Wadi Gaza.

Witnesses told The Associated Press that Israeli forces opened fire as people were advancing eastward to be close to the approaching trucks.

“It was a massacre,” said Ahmed Halawa. He said tanks and drones fired at people, “even as we were fleeing. Many people were either martyred or wounded.”

Hossam Abu Shahada, another eyewitness, said drones were flying over the area, watching the crowds first, then there was gunfire from tanks and drones as people were moving eastward. He described a “chaotic and bloody” scene as people were attempting to escape.

He said he saw at least three people lying on the ground motionless and many others wounded as he fled the site.

The Awda hospital said another 146 Palestinians were wounded. Among them were 62 in critical condition, who were transferred to other hospitals in central Gaza, it said.

In the central town of Deir al-Balah, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said it received the bodies of six people who were killed in the same incident.

Palestinian witnesses and health officials say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on crowds seeking desperately needed food, killing hundreds of people in recent weeks. The military says it has fired warning shots at people it said approached its forces in a suspicious manner.

The deaths were the latest in Israel-Hamas war in Gaza which killed about 56,000 Palestinians, according to the strip's health ministry.

The ministry doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants but say more than a half of the dead were women and children.

Israel launched its campaign in Gaza after Hamas' 7 October, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 251 hostages.

Most of the hostages were released by ceasefire agreements.