At least 36 people were killed and 208 wounded when Israeli forces fired towards crowds near a food distribution centre in Gaza on Tuesday morning, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

Footage supplied to Sky News shows people shouting and screaming as they flee explosions in the distance.

Dead and wounded people can be seen being carried away from the scene while thick smoke billows into the air.

The incident is the latest in a series of reports of Palestinians being killed by Israeli gunfire near one of the distribution centres operated by a new organisation which is permitted by the IDF to hand out aid in the territory.

One man seen in the footage says: “We want to live, we want to eat. We have children and wives. We want to live in our homes. Three years of war, bodies ripped apart, all this, for some flour.”

Humanitarian aid workers and experts have warned Israel’s blockade of Gaza and its military campaign has pushed the besieged enclave to the brink of famine.

Around 160 people have been killed in shootings near aid sites run by the new Israel and US-backed organisation, the health ministry has said.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which runs the sites, said there has been no violence in or around the distribution centres themselves.

However, it has warned people to stay on designated access routes and paused delivery last week while it held talks with Israel’s military on improving safety.

Israel’s military said in a statement its forces fired warning shots at suspects who were advancing and posed a threat to troops “despite warnings that the area is an active combat zone”.

It said it was aware of reports several people had been injured but its initial inquiry suggests the number “does not align with the information held” by the Israeli military.

“The warning shots were fired hundreds of metres from the aid distribution site, prior to its opening hours and toward the suspects who posed a threat to the troops,” it said, adding that the details are under review.

The government media office of Hamas said: “In a new crime added to the bloody record of the ‘Israeli’ occupation, the number of victims of the ‘Israeli-American aid distribution centres’ since Tuesday morning rose to 36 martyrs and more than 208 injuries, bringing the total number of victims of the ‘Israeli-American aid distribution centres’ to 163 martyrs and 1,495 injuries, all of whom are starving civilians seeking a living under siege and starvation.”

Read more:
Sanctioning of ministers adds to Israel’s growing ostracisation over Gaza and West Bank

Israeli government ministers sanctioned

It comes as the UK government sanctioned two Israeli government ministers due to their “repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian civilians”, the Foreign Office said.

The UK imposed sanctions on Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich alongside Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway.

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They are being sanctioned in their personal capacities and are now subject to a freeze on UK assets and director disqualifications, and banned from entering the country.

The sanctions were criticised by US secretary of state Marco Rubio who said on X: “These sanctions do not advance US-led efforts to achieve a ceasefire, bring all hostages home, and end the war.”

Greta Thunberg accuses Israel of ‘illegal act’

Earlier in the day Greta Thunberg accused Israel of committing “an illegal act” after the Gaza-bound aid boat she was on was seized by the country’s military and she was deported to France.

Students and adults are among 10 victims who were killed after a gunman opened fire at a secondary school in the Austrian city of Graz.

Interior minister Gerhard Karner said earlier that a further 12 people were injured in the shooting at the BORG Dreierschützengasse high school in Austria’s second-biggest city.

However Mr Karner gave the figure before it was confirmed that a person in hospital with life-threatening injuries had become the 10th person to die. It is not clear if this reduces the number of those injured to 11.

The interior minister also said the suspect was a former pupil of the school who didn’t finish his studies.

Police have said the 21-year-old Austrian gunman was found dead in the toilets of the school after the shootings and was operating alone.

As it happened: 10 killed in Austria school shooting

Authorities say he had two weapons, reported to be a shotgun and a pistol, which he appeared to have owned legally.

Police have said they did not have information about his possible motive.

Meanwhile, investigators have found a farewell letter at the house of the suspect, the Kronen newspaper in Austria reports.

Footage shared online revealed how gunshots and screaming could be heard after the gunman entered the school before opening fire.

French education minister Elisabeth Borne has said that one of those who died was a “young fellow citizen” of France.

It came as the mother of a child who survived the shooting retold the distressing moment she received a phone call from her son.

“My son called me to say he was in school and that he was being shot and that he thought he was going to die,” she said.

“I’ve only found out now, two hours later, that he’s still alive.”

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What we know about the shooting so far

Special forces were among those sent to the school, just under a mile from Graz’s historic centre, after a call at 10am local time (9am UK time).

Around an hour and half later, police wrote on X that the school had been evacuated and everyone had been taken to a safe meeting point.

Police deployed in large numbers, with emergency vehicles guarding the area around the school and with at least one police helicopter flying above.

Graz, Austria’s second-biggest city, is located in the southeast of the country and about 300,000 live there.

A ‘dark day’

Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker said there would be three days of national mourning, with the Austrian flag lowered to half-mast and a national minute of mourning at 10am on Wednesday (9am BST).

He said that it was “a dark day in the history of our country”.

President Alexander Van der Bellen said that “this horror cannot be captured in words”.

“These were young people who had their whole lives ahead of them. A teacher who accompanied them on their way,” he said.

Well-wishers later lit candles and placed them in the main square in Graz city centre on Tuesday night as a tribute to the shooting victims.

People were seen quietly reflecting as the city tried to come to terms with the deadly attack.

The school where the attack took place had earlier posted a message on Instagram following the tragedy.

The message is written in German, the official language of Austria, and translates in English to: “It was a really terrible day that deeply impacted and affected us all.

“Let us continue to stand together as a school community and support one another.

“Your teachers and your principal.”

Students and adults are among 11 people who have died in a school shooting in Austria.

A further 12 people were reportedly injured in the attack at a secondary school in Graz, Austria’s second-biggest city.

Mayor Elke Kahr described it as a “terrible tragedy”, the Austria Press Agency (APA) reported.

Austria school shooting: Follow live updates

Here is what we know so far.

What happened?

The shooting took place on 10 June at BORG Dreierschutzengasse, a secondary school in the northwest of Graz, close to the main central train station, Austrian police said.

Officials said 10 people were killed, six females and three males. The gunman was the eleventh person who died.

Twelve more people were injured, interior minister Gerhard Karner added.

Special forces were sent to the school at 10am local time after reports of shots being heard.

By 11.30am, police said the school had been evacuated and everyone had been taken to a safe meeting point.

Gunfire and screaming could be heard in footage posted on X purporting to be from the scene.

An injured person being carried to a helicopter by paramedics was also caught on video, while pictures showed armed officers at the scene.

At least 158 paramedics were on site responding to the shooting, and 31 crisis intervention staff.

The Austrian Red Cross told Sky News it had initiated its so-called ‘MANV system’, a protocol for dealing with a mass casualty incident.

Injured students were being cared for in the nearby Helmut List Halle events venue.

‘My son called me to say he was going to die’

The mother of a child who survived the shooting retold the distressing moment she received a phone call from her son.

She said she found out hours after the incident that he was alive.

“My son called me to say he was in school and that he was being shot and that he thought he was going to die,” she said.

“I’ve only found out now, two hours later, that he’s still alive.”

What we know about the suspect

Austrian police confirmed the perpetrator is dead, but have not yet revealed his identity.

In an update, Styrian State Police director Gerald Ortner said he was 21 years old and lived in Graz.

Officers believe he killed himself in the school’s toilet.

Mr Ortner said police did not have any prior information about the suspect, but said that he owned two guns, that he used in the shooting.

Interior minister Mr Karner added that the gunman was a former pupil of BORG Dreierschutzengasse who didn’t finish school.

He said any other details about the suspect was “still speculation”.

A ‘national tragedy’

Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker called the shooting a “national tragedy”.

In a later news conference, he said it is a “dark day in the history of our country”.

“There are no words to express the pain, the mourning, that all Austria is feeling right now,” he added.

He sent his condolences to those who were injured and the relatives, friends and staff who had to “live through this terrible, horrible event”.

He announced there will be three days of mourning and Austrian ministers are expected to pass a resolution for a national mourning today.

The Austrian flag will also be flown at half-mast and a minute of silence will be held on Wednesday.

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Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen added: “This horror cannot be put into words.”

He said what happened in Graz “strikes at the heart of our country”.