Israeli airstrikes and gunshots killed at least 25 people overnight in northern Gaza as thousands of Palestinians made their way to the Zikim crossing with Israel in search for food, local hospitals said on Saturday.
According to staff at the Shifa hospital, most of the victims were killed by gunfire as they waited for aid trucks close to the Zikim crossing with Israel.
Israel’s army did not respond to a request for comments about the latest shootings.
Those killed in strikes include four people in an apartment building in Gaza City, among others, hospital staff, and the ambulance service said.
The strikes come as ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas have hit a standstill after the US and Israel recalled their negotiating teams on Thursday, throwing the future of the negotiations into further uncertainty.
Palestinians in desperate search for food
On Saturday, thousands of Palestinians made their way to the Zikim crossing in the Gaza Strip, risking their lives in search of food.
Hospital officials reported that some Palestinians were killed in recent weeks in the area near the crossing, in the north of the Palestinian territory.
Some reports claim that when aid is given, criminal gangs and sizable groups of desperate people frequently overrun trucks as they enter and take the supplies.
Earlier this week, Israel's military reported that it was aware of some casualties when soldiers opened fire on a group of thousands of Palestinians in northern Gaza who were posing a threat.
Displaced mother Smoud Wahdan, cradling her infant son, made the journey to the crossing from a school in Gaza City where they are sheltering.
She acknowledged the journey carried a lot of risk, but said that she had to face this danger in order to feed her children.
“I have come all this way, risking my life for my children. My children have not eaten for a week,” she explained.
Experts have warned that Gaza is being pushed closer to famine, after months of Israel entirely blocking food or letting in only limited amounts.
The number of people dying from causes related to malnutrition has accelerated this month.
International outrage grows over starvation deaths
According to the UN World Food Programme (WFP), nearly one in three people in Gaza has not been eating for days at a time, warning that malnutrition is rising with around 90,000 children and women now in need of urgent treatment.
The warning comes just as over 100 human rights and charitable organisations, as well as more than two dozen Western-aligned nations, have called for the Gaza war to be brought to an end.
Their severe criticism has been directed at Israel's new aid delivery mechanism and blockade.
Israel says it has allowed in around 4,500 aid trucks since lifting a total blockade in May, and that it permits around 70 truckloads a day, one of the lowest rates during the Israel-Hamas war and far less than the several hundred the United Nations says are needed each day.
Despite the growing international outrage, Israel maintains it lets in enough aid and faults UN agencies for not doing enough to retrieve and get it to those in need.
The UN says its delivery of aid is being hampered by Israeli military restrictions on its movements and incidents of criminal looting.
In an update on Friday, the UN's OCHA said that the starvation crisis is deepening across Gaza, with the local health authorities announcing that two more people had died from starvation the previous day.
