At least 29 killed in Israeli attacks as they waited for aid, Gaza health ministry says

At least 29 Palestinians have been killed while waiting for aid in two separate Israeli attacks, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

The first incident on Thursday saw eight people killed in an airstrike on an aid distribution centre in the Nuseirat camp, in the central Gaza Strip, they said.

Later, at least 21 people were killed and more than 150 wounded by Israeli gunfire at a crowd waiting for aid at a roundabout, the ministry said.

The dead and injured from the second attack were taken to Gaza’s al Shifa hospital, the statement added.

Israel’s military denied the reports as “false” in a statement.

“As the IDF [Israeli Defence Forces] assesses the incident with the thoroughness that it deserves, we urge the media to do the same and only rely on credible information,” the statement said.

Most of Gaza‘s 2.3 million population has been displaced by the current conflict and deadly incidents have unfolded during aid distribution.

The latest news comes two weeks after the Gaza health ministry said at least 112 people were killed during another aid delivery.

Israel blamed the deaths on crowds that surrounded the aid trucks, but its account of that incident was “not clear”, as several “different versions of events” were given, Sky’s Middle East correspondent Alistair Bunkall said at the time.

Civilians gathered to try to get food and medicine from aid truck deliveries. A video obtained by Al Jazeera showed a crowd appearing to flee and duck amid audible gunfire.

Following the incident, medical teams said they were unable to cope with the volume and severity of the injuries, with dozens of wounded taken to al Shifa hospital, just under 4km from the incident site.

Israel’s current military offensive in Gaza was launched in the wake of Hamas’s 7 October attack.

The number of Palestinians killed since then is more than 31,000, the health ministry previously said.

A quarter of the remaining Palestinians there face starvation, according to the United Nations.

Countries including the US and Jordan have airdropped supplies into Gaza amid Israel’s refusal to open more aid routes.

Efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have so far failed.

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Late on Thursday, Hamas said it had presented a vision of a truce deal based on stopping what it called Israeli aggression in Gaza, providing relief and aid, the return of displaced Gazans and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas’s vision was based on “unrealistic demands”.