Israeli Forces Open Fire in Gaza

Israeli forces in war-torn Gaza opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians at an aid distribution point , killing at least 104 people and wounding over 700 according to Palestinian health officials.

Israeli sources confirmed that troops shot at the crowd, believing they "posed a threat", in the pre-dawn incident in Gaza City in the north of the besieged territory.

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza condemned what it labeled a "massacre" and said it had claimed at least 104 lives and left 760 people wounded.

A witness said that the violence unfolded when thousands of people desperate for food rushed towards aid trucks at the city's western Nabulsi roundabout.

The Israeli army initially said that "during the entry of humanitarian aid trucks into the northern Gaza Strip, Gazan residents surrounded the trucks and looted the supplies being delivered".

Later an Israeli source said, speaking on condition of anonymity, that "the crowd approached the forces in a manner that posed a threat to the troops, who responded to the threat with live fire".

As the dead and wounded were taken to several of Gaza's few functioning hospitals, health officials reported a steadily rising death toll.

Gaza is facing an increasingly desperate humanitarian situation nearly five months into the war started by Hamas's unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7.

The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of around 1,160 people, mostly civilians.

Israel's relentless military campaign to eliminate Hamas has killed more than 30,000 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry.

The UN estimates that the vast majority of Gaza's 2.4 million people are threatened with famine, particularly in the north where destruction, fighting and looting make aid delivery almost impossible.