Hamas health ministry says Israeli troops killed 20 Gazans waiting for aid

It claims citizens had gathered at a roundabout in the city’s north when they were fired upon by Israeli forces from the sky, with a further 155 wounded.

Israel has firmly denied that its military targeted the civilians.

Graphic footage has been posted online purorting to show dead bodies strewn around Gaza City’s Kuwaiti roundabout, where people wait for food and aid.

Neither the death toll or the footage can be independently verified.

“The wounded lie on the floor in al-Shifa Medical Complex,” the ministry said in a statement, describing it as “a new, premeditated massacre”.

Israeli authorities immediately hit back, describing the reports as “erroneous”. The Israeli military’s spokesperson for Arabic media, Avichay Adraee, denied reports that it was Israeli troops who opened fire.

“Reports that the [Israeli military] targeted dozens of Gazans on Thursday evening at a humanitarian aid distribution point are incorrect,” he said in a post on X, explaining Israel is “examining the details of the incident” and urged media to only report on “reliable information”.

Mohammed Ghurab, director of emergency services at a hospital in northern Gaza, said there were “direct shots by the occupation forces” on people waiting for a food truck.

Fighting is still raging in the territory after peace mediators failed to reach a truce for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said a truce proposal presented by Hamas to Egyptian and Qatari mediators was still based on “unrealistic demands”.

As political figures pontificate behind bulletproof glass, untold thousands of civilians are living the horrors of war day in, day out. Aid efforts have ramped up as the situation on the ground continues to deteriorate.

UN agencies have warned of famine in Gaza, which Israel has besieged after the unprecedented attack by Hamas militants on October 7.

The humanitarian emergency has forced some countries to use airdrops and sea routes for aid supplies because of limited land access to Gaza via Jordan, Israel and Egypt.

The Spanish aid vessel Open Arms, towing about 200 tonnes of food, was nearing Israel’s coast after departing Cyprus on Tuesday, the Marinetraffic website showed on Thursday.

Dire shortages have left many scrambling for scraps of aid, with locals revealing they can’t even get their hands on a bottle of milk to feed their baby.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Netanyahu has doubled down on pledges to invade Rafah in the south, where most of Gaza’s population has sought refuge.

“There is international pressure to prevent us from entering Rafah and completing the job,” Mr Netanyahu said.

“I will continue to repel the pressures and we will enter Rafah… and bring complete victory to the people of Israel,” he said during a visit to a field intelligence base.

Around 1.5 million Palestinians have sought refuge along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt in and around Rafah.

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said a “significant” number of them would need to be moved “to a humanitarian island that we will create with the international community”.

The Israeli military said on Thursday it was “raiding Hamas’s hideouts and military strongholds” in southern Gaza’s main city of Khan Yunis.

At least 31,000 Palestinian civilians have died since the October assault, including 12,300 children.

Nearly 700 Israelis, including 36 children were killed by Hamas in the terror attack on October 7. Many of the 200 hostages taken are still missing.