AT least 25 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire while seeking aid today, according to health officials and witnesses, as eight more died from hunger.

Staff at Nasser and Awda hospitals, which received the bodies, and eyewitnesses said people were shot on their way to aid distribution sites run by the Israel-US-approved Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and while waiting for convoys to enter the strip.

Hashim Shamalah, who was trying to reach one of the sites, said Israeli troops opened fire as people attempted to pass through.

Many were shot and fell while fleeing, he said.

Israel did not immediately respond, but the GHF denied that any incidents took place.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said today at least 123 Palestinians had been killed and 437 injured in Israeli attacks across the enclave in the prior 24 hours.

In the same period eight people, including three children, died of hunger, bringing the number of starvation-related deaths to 235, including 106 children.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday the “right thing to do” was to “allow” Gaza’s population to leave, as Israel prepares for the next stage of the war by seizing Gaza City and other places it considers Hamas strongholds.

Mr Netanyahu has previously said he wants to promote so-called “voluntary migration” for much of Gaza’s population, a policy linked to earlier statements by US President Donald Trump.

“Give them the opportunity to leave! First, from combat zones and also from the Strip if they want,” he told Israeli TV station i24.

“We are not pushing them out but allowing them to leave.”

Israel and South Sudan are reportedly in talks about relocating Palestinians to the war-torn east African nation, a move human rights groups warn would constitute forcible expulsion and ethnic cleansing, in violation of international law.

Similar proposals have been floated with Sudan, Somalia and the breakaway region of Somaliland.

Campaigners around the world continue to demand action to stop the genocide.

Usuf Chikte of South Africa’s Palestine Solidarity Campaign told Al Jazeera: “It has been 96 weeks, week upon week, that we have protested at the church, St George’s Cathedral, the church of Desmond Tutu who said that if you don’t speak up against a genocide, against an oppression then you are complicit with it.”

Jenny Manson of Britain’s Jewish Voice for Labour told the Morning Star that Jews calling for urgent government action were “frustrated and angry” at the state’s failure to stop starvation in Gaza.

“They are so weak in their opposition to Israel and its American [ally],” she said.

“They host and court American leaders instead of condemning them as war criminals for abetting the genocide and brutalities.”

A total of 270 Jewish figures and groups have now signed the organisation’s letter to the British government, including actor Miriam Margolyes.