Gaza rescuers say 16 killed by Israeli military
Israeli military operations killed 16 Palestinians in Gaza Sunday, many while waiting for humanitarian aid, according to civil defence.
Civil defence reports civilian casualties from Israeli fire near Gaza aid distribution points; Israel denies knowledge of such incidents.
War-torn Gaza faces worsening humanitarian crisis with severe shortages of food, water, and medicine amid prolonged conflict.
Gaza's civil defence agency said 16 people were killed in Israeli military operations in the Palestinian territory on Sunday, most of them while waiting for aid, AFP reports.
The first responders agency's teams transported the bodies of 16 people killed by Israeli fire in various parts of the Palestinian territory, spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
At least three people were killed and many injured when Israeli forces "targeted a gathering of hundreds of citizens near the aid distribution point" in central Gaza on Sunday morning, Bassal said.
In the coastal territory's north, Bassal said civil defence teams transported seven people killed on their way to get aid distributed from trucks in the area northwest of Gaza City.
In south Gaza, two people were killed and 50 were injured "when (Israeli) forces opened fire on citizens near an aid distribution point," Bassal said.
Contacted by AFP, the army said it was "not aware of gunshots near Netzarim or Rafah", and that it was looking into the events in northern Gaza.
READ | Netanyahu admits supporting anti-Hamas Gaza militants: 'What is bad about that?'
Israeli restrictions on media in Gaza and the difficulties of access on the ground mean AFP is unable to independently verify the casualty tolls provided by the civil defence agency.
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed while trying to reach Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution points since the US- and Israel-backed organisation began operating in late May, according to the civil defence agency.
An officially private effort with opaque funding, the GHF began operating on 26 May after Israel cut off supplies into Gaza for more than two months, sparking international condemnation and warnings of imminent famine.
The Gaza Strip has been ravaged by more than 20 months of war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, with the situation continuing to deteriorate on the ground.
Bassal said that the humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to worsen, "with no food, no water and no medicine, while thousands of children, the elderly and the sick go to sleep hungry".
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