Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz on Friday firmly rejected a report in the Israeli newspaper said Israeli soldiers had been instructed to fire at Palestinians who were nearing humanitarian aid locations in Gaza.
They denounced the report as a series of "malicious falsehoods intended to defame" the military.
The Haaretz probe comes amid increasing criticism of the growing Palestinian death toll as people seek assistance.
Over 500 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds injured in attempts to receive food since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US-funded private organisation, started distributing aid boxes at four sites in southern Gaza a month ago.
Palestinian eyewitnesses say Israeli troops repeatedly opened fire on civilians heading towards the areas. The Israeli military has conceded that it is investigating cases in which civilians were apparently injured near aid delivery points, but denied claims of intentional targeting. "The allegations by the article of intentional fire at civilians have no basis," the military stated.
In a posted online statement, GHF stated it had not seen reports of such incidents but characterised the allegations as serious and urged Israeli authorities to "investigate and publish transparently the findings on time.
Violence and anarchy have repeatedly broken out at these centres of aid. Tens of thousands of Palestinians, many uprooted from their homes by months of fighting and with severe hunger because of an Israeli blockade, have been trying to get to the delivery points. Witnesses speak of long walks across Israeli-held territories, where they claim troops open fire to disperse or manage the crowds. The army denies firing anything except warning shots.
Mohammad Fawzi, a displaced man from Rafah, told the Associated Press that on Thursday morning, after hours of walking to the Shakoush aid site, he received nothing but an empty box. “We’ve been shot at since 6 a.m. until 10 a.m. just to get aid. Only some managed to get food. There are martyrs and wounded. The situation is very difficult,” he said.
Doctors Without Borders on Friday denounced the system as "a slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid" and called for its immediate suspension.
At Shifa Hospital, director Dr Mohamed Abu Selmyiha confirmed receipt of eight bodies from the GHF site in Netzarim on Friday, though the cause of death was not specified.
A spokesperson for GHF told the BBC that the organisation had no knowledge of such an incident. Another 20 bodies it received that day were described as casualties from airstrikes along northern Gaza.
As the ceasefire unraveled on 18 March, more than 6,000 Palestinians were killed and over 20,000 were wounded, the Gaza Health Ministry reported. Overall, since the war erupted, the death toll reached more than 56,000 and the injured over 132,000.
The ministry does not differentiate between fighters and civilians but reports that women and children account for more than half of those killed. Israel insists that it only attacks Hamas fighters, attributing civilian casualties to the group's actions in crowded areas.
It started on 7 October 2023 when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 and holding around 250 hostages. Around 50 of them are still believed to be held in Gaza.
Friday saw at least six Palestinians killed and ten wounded in Israeli attacks close to the Martyrs Roundabout in the Bureij Camp, central Gaza, officials from Awda Hospital in Nuseirat reported.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres again called for a ceasefire, asking leaders to exhibit "political courage" in the same vein as the current de-escalation between Israel and Iran. He also called for a return to the UN-supervised system of delivering aid, saying that Israeli military actions had created "a humanitarian crisis of horrific proportions."
"The search for food must never be a death sentence," Guterres said to journalists.
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