UN Team Reports Gunshot Wounds in Gaza Hospital Visit

A UN team visiting a Gaza hospital reported seeing "a large number of gunshot wounds" among dozens of Palestinians being treated after Israeli troops opened fire at a food aid point.

UN staff, the first to visit Gaza's north in more than a week, spent just over two hours at Al-Shifa hospital, where they delivered medication and fuel.

The visit comes in the wake of more than 100 deaths, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, after Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd scrambling for food aid from a truck convoy in northern Gaza.

They also received the bodies of more than 70 people killed in the incident, hospital staff told the team which was composed of representatives from the UN Humanitarian Office (OCHA), WHO and UNICEF.

According to the area's Hamas-run health ministry, the death toll stood at 115, with some 760 injured.

The Israeli military said a "stampede" occurred when thousands of Gazans surrounded the convoy. 

Israeli sources have confirmed that Israeli forces at the scene opened fire, having perceived the crowds near the trucks as a "threat."

The Israeli-Hamas war began on October 7 with an unprecedented Hamas attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, Israeli figures show.

Israel's retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed 30,228 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry.

While the situation is particularly acute in north Gaza, civilians across the territory are struggling to find food, water and medical care, including in the far-southern city of Rafah where around 1.4 million people have sought refuge from fighting elsewhere.

Despite repeated international calls to hold off, Israel is threatening to send ground troops into Rafah to press its manhunt for Hamas leaders and eliminate its remaining forces.