Extract from ABC News
More than 800 people have died trying to access aid in Gaza since late May, the UN has said. (Reuters: Ramadan Abed)
In short:
The Palestinian health ministry says at least 73 people have been killed in Gaza while attempting to access aid across Gaza on Sunday.
At least 67 Palestinians were killed entering northern Gaza through the Zikim crossing with Israel.
What's next?
The Israeli military didn't immediately make any comment.
At least 73 people have been killed while attempting to access aid at various locations across Gaza, the health ministry in the Palestinian territory says.
The largest toll was in northern Gaza on Sunday, where at least 67 Palestinians were killed while trying to reach aid entering northern Gaza through the Zikim crossing with Israel, according to the ministry and local hospitals.
More than 150 people were wounded, with some of them in critical condition, hospitals said.
It was not immediately clear whether they were killed by the Israeli army or armed gangs or both.
Some witnesses said the Israeli military shot at the crowd.
The head of emergency and ambulance services in northern Gaza, Fares Afaneh, told the ABC ambulances had not stopped arriving from the site of the incident since Sunday morning local time.
"Each ambulance that arrives at the Hamad hospital in the area of the sea of Northern Gaza, has five to 10 wounded — most of them seriously wounded as result of the shelling from the artillery and airplanes," he said.
"There is a real massacre against these unarmed civilians committed by the Israeli occupation forces. This massacre has to end, this killing of civilians of our Palestinian people."
Fares Afaneh says ambulances have been bringing wounded from the aid site at Sudaniya, in Gaza's north. (ABC News)
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had fired warning shots "in order to remove an immediate threat posed to them".
"The IDF is aware of the claim regarding casualties in the area, and the details of the incident are still being examined," the statement said.
"An initial review suggests that the number of casualties reported does not align with the information held by the IDF. The IDF urges caution regarding information published by unreliable sources."
'We don't want to die from hunger'
The IDF and Israeli government have previously dismissed figures from Gaza's health ministry as Hamas propaganda.
The ABC and other western news organisations are not allowed access to Gaza to report and verify claims.
Jouma Zoarob, an aid seeker who witnessed the shooting on Sunday, said he and other Palestinians were struggling to find enough food to feed their families.
"We have agreed to die from bombing, we have agreed to die from being shot at and from missiles — there is not a type of weapon that was not used against us — but we are not willing to die from hunger," he told the ABC.
"We don't want to die from hunger. Our children will not die from hunger."
"We don't want to die from the weapon of hunger. It's the minimum human right and is forbidden in all wars in the world. It's forbidden in all the wars, in all the religions."
Jouma Zoarob says he and other Palestinians fear dying of hunger due to the lack of aid. (ABC News)
The killings in northern Gaza did not take place near aid distribution points associated with the Gaza Humanitarian Fund, or GHF, a US-and Israel-backed group that hands out food packages to Palestinians.
Witnesses and health workers say hundreds of people have been killed by Israeli fire while trying to access the group's distribution sites.
IDF publish new evacuation orders
Meanwhile, the Israeli military published new evacuation warnings for areas of central Gaza on Sunday, in one of the few areas where the military has rarely operated with ground troops.
The evacuation cuts access between the city of Deir al-Balah and the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis in the narrow enclave.
The announcement came as Israel and Hamas have been holding ceasefire talks in Qatar, but international mediators say there have been no breakthroughs.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stressed that expanding Israel's military operations in Gaza will pressure Hamas to negotiate, but negotiations have been stalled for months.
Earlier this month, the Israeli military said that it controlled more than 65 per cent of the Gaza Strip.
AP
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