THE Israelis opened fire toward hundreds of people waiting for aid trucks in central Gaza early today, killing at least 25 people, according to Palestinian eyewitnesses.

Gazan health authorities said that the number of Palestinians killed in the war has risen above 56,000.

New food distribution sites run by a United States contractor, with US and Israeli government support, have been the site of almost daily Israeli attacks on Palestinians seeking desperately need humanitarian support since opening last month.

Palestinians say that Israeli troops often fire toward desperate crowds trying to collect food. The army says it only fires warning shots to control the crowds.

In Tuesday’s incident, Palestinian witnesses told reporters that Israeli forces opened fire as people advanced eastward toward trucks delivering food to a distribution site.

“It was a massacre,” said Ahmed Halawa. He said that tanks and drones fired at people “even as we were fleeing. Many people were either martyred or wounded.”

Hossam Abu Shahada, another eyewitness, said that drones were flying over the area, watching the crowds first, then there was gunfire from tanks and drones as people were moving eastward.

He described a “chaotic and bloody” scene as people were attempting to escape.

He said that he saw at least three people lying on the ground motionless and many others wounded as he fled the site.

The Israeli military said that it was reviewing the incident, which took place near the Netzarim corridor, a road that bisects northern and southern Gaza.

The Awda hospital in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp confirmed 25 deaths and said 146 others were wounded.

In the central town of Deir al-Balah, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said that it received the bodies of six people who were killed in the same incident.

Palestinian witnesses and health officials say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on crowds seeking desperately needed food, killing hundreds of people in recent weeks.

The Israelis claim it has fired warning shots at people approaching its forces in a suspicious manner.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Israel’s 21-month military operation in Gaza has killed 56,077 people since the start of the war following Hamas’s surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7 2023.

The dead include 5,759 who have been killed since Israel resumed fighting on March 18, shuttering a two-month ceasefire, it said and 131,848 have been wounded since the war started.

Hamas’s attack left about 1,200 people dead and 251 others were taken hostage.

Most of the hostages were released by ceasefire agreements.