RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — At least 31 people were killed and over 170 were wounded Sunday as large crowds were on their way to receive food in the Gaza Strip, health officials and witnesses said. Witnesses said Israeli forces fired toward the crowds just before dawn around a kilometer (about 1,100 yards) from an aid site run by an Israeli-backed foundation.

READ MORE: Dozens are killed getting food aid in Gaza. Multiple witnesses say it was Israeli troops, but Israel denies responsibility

Israel’s military denied its forces fired at civilians near or within the site in the southern city of Rafah. An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with procedure, said troops fired warning shots at several suspects advancing toward them overnight.

The military also released drone footage it said was shot Sunday, apparently in daylight, in the southern city of Khan Younis, showing what it said were armed, masked men firing at civilians trying to collect aid. The Associated Press could not independently verify the video, and it was not clear who was being targeted. “Hamas is doing everything in its power to prevent the successful distribution of food in Gaza,” the statement said.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — promoted by Israel and the United States — said in a statement it delivered aid “without incident,” and released a separate video it said was shot Sunday at the site that appeared to show people collecting aid. The AP was not able to verify the video. The foundation has denied previous accounts of chaos and gunfire around its sites, which are in Israeli military zones where independent media has no access.

It was the deadliest incident yet around the new aid distribution system, which has operated for less than a week.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement its field hospital in Rafah received 179 casualties including women and children, 21 of them declared dead upon arrival, the majority with gunshot or shrapnel wounds. It was unclear if any of the dead were militants.

“All patients said they had been trying to reach an aid distribution site,” the ICRC said, calling it the highest number of “weapon-wounded” people in a single incident since the hospital was set up over a year ago.

The head of the World Food Program, Cindy McCain, told ABC News that staffers on the ground were reporting people killed and called it a “tragedy.”

“Aid distribution has become a death trap,” the head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, said in a statement.

In a separate statement, Israeli military chief of staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir ordered that more aid sites be established — and that troops’ ground operation be expanded in unspecified parts of northern and southern Gaza.

A new aid system marred by chaos

Multiple witnesses have said Israeli troops fired on crowds near the foundation’s sites. Before Sunday, 17 people were killed while trying to reach them, according to Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Gaza Health Ministry’s records department.

The foundation says private security contractors guarding its sites have not fired on crowds. Israel’s military has acknowledged firing warning shots on previous occasions.

WATCH: How Israel is responding to latest U.S. proposals to pause war in Gaza

The foundation said in a statement it distributed 16 truckloads of aid early Sunday “without incident,” and dismissed what it described as “false reporting about deaths, mass injuries and chaos.”

U.N. agencies and major aid groups have refused to work with the new system, saying it violates humanitarian principles.

‘The scene was horrible’

Thousands of people headed toward the distribution site hours before dawn. As they approached, Israeli forces ordered them to disperse and come back later, witnesses said. When the crowds reached the Flag Roundabout, around 1 kilometer away, at around 3 a.m., Israeli forces opened fire, the witnesses said.

“There was fire from all directions, from naval warships, from tanks and drones,” said Amr Abu Teiba, who was in the crowd.

He said he saw at least 10 bodies with gunshot wounds and several other wounded people, including women. People used carts to ferry the dead and wounded. “The scene was horrible,” he said.

Most people were shot “in the upper part of their bodies, including the head, neck and chest,” said Dr. Marwan al-Hams, a Health Ministry official at Nasser Hospital, where many were transferred from the Red Cross field hospital. A colleague, surgeon Khaled al-Ser, said 150 wounded people had arrived, along with 28 bodies.

The hospital corridors were filled with patients, “but unlike what I have witnessed before, where most of the patients were women and children, today it was mainly men,” a spokesperson with medical charity MSF, Nour Alsaqa, said in a statement.

Ibrahim Abu Saoud, another witness, said the military fired from about 300 meters (yards) away. He said he saw many people with gunshot wounds, including a young man who died at the scene. “We weren’t able to help him,” he said.

Mohammed Abu Teaima, 33, said he saw Israeli forces open fire and kill his cousin and a woman as they headed toward the distribution site. He said his cousin was shot in his chest, and his brother-in-law was among the wounded.

“They opened heavy fire directly toward us,” he said.

An AP reporter arrived at the field hospital at around 6 a.m. and saw dozens of wounded, including women and children. The reporter also saw crowds of people returning from the distribution point. Some carried boxes of aid but most appeared to be empty-handed.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said least 31 people were killed and over 170 were wounded.

READ MORE: Desperate Palestinians stop, unload UN food trucks as Israeli attacks kill dozens in Gaza

“This is sinful, enough with the humiliation. They humiliated us for the sake of food,” said Ilham Jarghon as fellow Palestinians wept and prayed for the dead.

Later Sunday, Israeli artillery shells struck tents sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis, killing three and wounding at least 30, according to Nasser Hospital. Israel’s military said it was looking into it.

The UN says new aid system violates humanitarian principles

Israel and the U.S. say the new system is aimed at preventing Hamas from siphoning off assistance. Israel has not provided evidence of systematic diversion, and the U.N. denies it has occurred.

U.N. agencies and major aid groups say the new system allows Israel to control who receives aid and forces people to relocate to distribution sites, risking yet more mass displacement in the coastal territory.

“It’s essentially engineered scarcity,” Jonathan Whittall, interim head in Gaza of the U.N. humanitarian office, said last week.

The U.N. system has struggled to bring in aid after Israel slightly eased its nearly three-month blockade of the territory last month. The groups say Israeli restrictions, the breakdown of law and order and widespread looting make it extremely difficult to deliver aid to Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians.

Experts have warned that the territory is at risk of famine if more aid is not brought in.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. They are still holding 58 hostages, around a third believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Israel’s military campaign has killed over 54,000 people in Hamas-run Gaza, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants. The offensive has destroyed vast areas, displaced around 90% of the population and left people almost completely reliant on international aid.

The latest efforts at ceasefire talks appeared to stumble Saturday when Hamas said it had sought amendments to a U.S. ceasefire proposal that Israel had approved, and the U.S. envoy called that “unacceptable.”

Mediators Qatar and Egypt in a joint statement Sunday said they continued “intensive efforts to bridge the gaps in viewpoints” and hoped for “a swift agreement for a temporary ceasefire lasting 60 days, leading to a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.”

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.

Many people of conscience are looking for ways to support Palestinians in Gaza who are facing an extreme humanitarian crisis. Since October 2023, the Israeli military has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and displaced more than 90% of the population. Israel’s restrictions on aid to Gaza have also led to starvation and the spread of disease.

Since March 2, 2025, the Israeli government has severely restricted food, fuel, water, and medicine from entering Gaza. The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières said that Gaza was becoming a “mass grave for Palestinians and those coming to their assistance.” Nevertheless, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has stated that blocking humanitarian aid is one of the main pressure tools used by Israel to gain the release of Israelis held captive in Gaza.

Gaza’s 2.3 million people have long faced suffocating conditions imposed by Israel and upheld by the international community. For over 17 years, Palestinians in Gaza have lived under Israel’s brutal blockade, isolated from the rest of Palestine and the world. Prior to 2023, more than 50% of Palestinians were unemployed, and over 80% relied on humanitarian relief to survive. They had limited access to clean water, electricity, and medical care. Farms in Gaza covered 40% of the land, providing food for about a third of the population. Now, 82% of these lands have been destroyed or damaged by the Israeli army.

Previous Israeli military attacks on Gaza—including devastating bombing assaults in May 2021, August 2022, and May 2023—killed hundreds of civilians and destroyed critical infrastructure. Even before Oct. 7, 2023, the psychosocial well-being of children, young people, and their caregivers had declined to alarming levels, according to Save the Children.

Today, we must renew and strengthen our efforts to change these realities. Here are six ways you can support Palestinians in Gaza today.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Palestinians in the Gaza Strip blocked and offloaded dozens of food trucks, the U.N. World Food Program said Saturday, as desperation mounts following Israel’s monthslong blockade while talks of a ceasefire inch forward.

The WFP said 77 trucks carrying aid, mostly flour, were stopped by hungry people who took the food before the trucks could reach their destination.

The nearly three-month Israeli blockade on Gaza has pushed the population of over 2 million to the brink of famine. While pressure slightly eased in recent days as Israel allowed some aid to enter, aid organizations say far from enough food is getting in.

READ MORE: Palestinian children suffering from malnutrition overwhelm Gaza’s Nasser Hospital

Hamas on Friday said it was reviewing a U.S. proposal for a temporary ceasefire, which Israeli officials have approved. U.S. President Donald Trump said negotiators were nearing a deal.

A ceasefire would pause the fighting for 60 days, release some of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and much-needed food aid and other assistance, according to Hamas and Egyptian officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The WFP said the fear of starvation in Gaza is high despite the aid that’s entering now. “We need to flood communities with food for the next few days to calm anxieties and rebuild the trust with communities that more food is coming,” it said in a statement — adding that it has over 140,000 metric tons of food — enough to feed Gazans for two months — ready to be brought in.

A witness in the southern city of Khan Younis told The Associated Press the U.N. convoy was stopped at a makeshift roadblock and offloaded by desperate civilians in their thousands. Most people carried bags of flour. He said at one point a forklift was used to offload pallets. The witness spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisal.

The United Nations said earlier this month that Israeli authorities have forced them to use unsecured routes within areas controlled by Israel’s military in the eastern areas of Rafah and Khan Younis, where armed gangs are active and trucks were stopped.

Israel’s military didn’t immediately respond to questions.

ATTACKS AND LACK OF PROTECTION HAMPER UN DISTRIBUTION

An internal document shared with aid groups about security incidents, seen by the AP, said there were four incidents of facilities being looted in three days at the end of May, not including Saturday’s.

The U.N. says it has been unable to get enough aid in because of fighting. On Friday, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said it only picked up five truckloads of cargo from the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, and the other 60 trucks had to return due to intense hostilities.

READ MORE: Nine of a doctor’s 10 children are killed in latest Israeli strikes in Gaza, health officials say

A new U.S- and Israeli-backed foundation started operations in Gaza this week, distributing food at several sites in a chaotic rollout.

Israel says the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation eventually will replace the aid operation that the U.N. and others have carried out during nearly 20 months of war. It says the new mechanism is necessary, accusing Hamas of siphoning off large amounts of aid. The U.N. denies that significant diversion takes place.

The GHF works with armed contractors, which it says are needed to distribute food safely. Aid groups have accused the foundation of militarizing aid.

ISRAELI STRIKES KILL AT LEAST 60

Israel continued its military campaign across Gaza, saying it struck dozens of targets over the past day. Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 60 people were killed by Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours.

The ministry said three people were killed by Israeli gunfire early Saturday in Rafah. Three others were killed — parents and a child — when their car was struck in Gaza City. An Israeli strike hit another car in Gaza City, killing four. And an Israeli strike hit a tent sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis, killing six, said Weam Fares, a spokesperson for Nasser Hospital.

The war began when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking 250 hostages. Of those taken captive, 58 remain in Gaza. Israel believes 35 are dead and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said there are “doubts” about the fate of several others.

Israeli strikes have killed more than 54,000 Gaza residents, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tally.

Israel’s leaders slam a news report on a Gaza ‘killing field’ near food sites

toggle caption Abdel Kareem Hana/AP

A newspaper report published in Hebrew and English quoting Israeli soldiers saying commanders have ordered them to shoot at unarmed hungry crowds of people in Gaza trying to reach food distribution sites prompted a scathing response by Israel’s prime minister on Friday.

World U.S. to fund Gaza food plan mired in chaos and killings U.S. to fund Gaza food plan mired in chaos and killings Listen · 4:02 4:02

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a joint statement calling the Haaretz report “blood libel.”

“These are malicious falsehoods designed to defame the IDF [Israel Defense Forces], the most moral military in the world,” they added.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 500 people have been killed and more than 4,000 wounded by Israeli forces while seeking food aid in the past month.

The Haaretz report quotes multiple anonymous Israeli soldiers describing what they say are the military’s attacks on people trying to get food aid in Gaza since May 27. The soldiers say they were ordered by commanders to fire at unarmed civilians who were approaching food distribution sites during off hours, even when the crowds posed no threat.

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The report is the latest to shed light on what aid workers and critics say is a flawed plan by Israel to control food in Gaza after 11 weeks of full Israeli blockade and continued restrictions on the entry of aid into the territory. This week, for the first time in months, the United Nations was able to bring in some medical supplies into Gaza.

toggle caption Ariel Schalit/AP

NPR has not independently confirmed Haaretz’s reporting. The head of the U.N. told reporters the world doesn’t need reports like this to acknowledge massive violations of international law in Gaza.

“Any operation that channels desperate civilians into militarized zones is inherently unsafe. It is killing people,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said.

Troops describe firing at crowds of aid seekers

One soldier quoted in Haaretz says the army fires machine guns, grenade launchers and mortars at crowds — who pose no threat — while waiting for the distribution sites to open. The distribution sites are manned by U.S. contractors inside, in areas under Israeli military control. The soldier says there are no crowd-control measures, only gunfire being shot at crowds near these sites.

The soldier says it’s akin to a lethal version of the children’s game “red light, green light,” and calls it a “killing field.”

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Another soldier quoted in the report says Israeli commanders take the law into their own hands in Gaza.

Israel’s military says it rejects the accusations in the Haaretz article and that soldiers are not instructed to deliberately shoot at civilians. The military says reports of such “incidents are being examined” by military authorities. Haaretz says a military body is being asked to investigate incidents at these distribution sites for suspected war crimes.

These food distribution sites operate at erratic times and some days, not at all. They are run by a group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is receiving $30 million from the Trump administration to bolster its operations. The State Department says GHF offers a creative solution to keep aid from reaching Hamas, the group that Israel is at war with in Gaza.

toggle caption Abdel Kareem Hana/AP

There are only four GHF sites distributing food in Gaza. These fenced-off facilities were placed in expansive military “red zones,” where Israeli troops are positioned and where Palestinians have been told not to be, outside of the GHF’s erratic and often short operating times.

People in Gaza walk to these sites, three of which are far south, and grab food, without vetting or I.D. checks, according to witnesses and survivors who have spoken to NPR.

Inside these sites, people take what they can carry, ripping GHF boxes open. People in Gaza have told NPR that some of the canned food and other goods from these sites have ended up sold at exorbitant prices on the black market, suggesting looters and traders are among those taking the food.

GHF denies shootings are taking place near its sites, but has acknowledged challenges in getting food to people, describing it as a “learning loop.” It called on Israel to investigate the allegations made in the Haaretz story and publish the findings.

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Aid workers and medics call for end to GHF distribution plan

Doctors Without Borders, one of the many nongovernmental aid groups in Gaza refusing to work with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, says aid must not be controlled by a warring party to further its military objectives.

The medical NGO says one of its clinics has been receiving 10 or more patients a day with injuries from GHF distribution sites, but that the clinic does not have the lifesaving treatment needed for blood transfusions and surgery.

“This system is a slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid, and it must be immediately dismantled,” the aid group said.

Adil Husain, a physician from Dallas, Texas, who’s been volunteering in southern Gaza’s Nasser Hospital for the past two weeks, told NPR that every day he’s treating people shot near GHF sites. He called it a horror movie on repeat.

“I can’t tell you how many boys, young boys and adults that get rushed into my resuscitation bay, bleeding out from their abdomen, bleeding out from the head,” he said. “When I’m exposing them trying to look for their injuries, what I find is empty bags. Empty bags that they had only hoped to fill with food, just so that they could survive for a few more days.”

He says instead, people are left without food and with life-changing injuries. Dr. Husain shared images with NPR of a thin, frail-looking teenager who died after being shot in the head, and of two young boys, one who lost his eye and another now paralyzed from the neck down, whom he said were shot by the Israeli military near GHF sites while trying to get food this week.

The U.S. has a plan for getting food into Gaza. Top aid groups object to the idea

toggle caption Abdel Kareem Hana/AP

TEL AVIV, Israel — On the eve of President Trump’s visit to Arab allies in the Gulf, the U.S. and Israel have announced a plan to allow food and essential supplies back into Gaza after a ten-week Israeli ban that aid workers say is driving rampant hunger in the territory.

It is the result of pressure by the Trump administration on Israel to allow aid back into Gaza, according to a person familiar with the details who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal diplomacy.

The proposed solution would only provide food and aid to around 60 percent of Gaza’s civilians initially, according to a copy of the proposal reviewed by NPR. Key details remain unresolved, like who would run it or pay for it.

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The program is an about-face from Israel’s earlier policy to withhold aid to pressure Hamas to free Israeli hostages. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee says Israel is fully on board with the new proposal.

“President Trump has made very clear that one of the most urgent things that needs to happen is humanitarian aid into Gaza, and he has tasked all of his team to do everything possible to accelerate that and to as expeditiously as possible get humanitarian aid in, to the people,” said Huckabee in a press conference Friday.

toggle caption Jehad Alshrafi/AP

What the new aid plan would look like

Gaza’s population would be forced to move south in order to receive aid in a new zone cordoned off by Israel’s military, to prevent Hamas members from access, an Israeli defense official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity to divulge details.

According to a 14-page proposal reviewed by NPR, a private charity recently registered in Switzerland called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation would establish four aid distribution sites and hand out pre-packaged food, hygiene kits and medical supplies.

Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, publicly endorsed the U.S. plan Sunday and called on countries and aid groups to cooperate.

“It will enable aid to go directly to the people. Hamas must not be allowed to get their hands on it,” Saar said. Israeli soldiers “will not allocate aid. They will secure the perimeter.”

Israel says Hamas has taken advantage of aid deliveries, seizing supplies, profiting from black market sales, and using aid distribution to assert its control of Gaza. U.N. officials say there is no large-scale diversion of aid in Gaza.

“The aid we coordinate goes to the people for whom it’s intended,” said Olga Cherevko of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. “We have mechanisms in place that help mitigate this, including monitoring during and after distribution, hotlines to report incidents and our accountability to donors.”

Israel says it will first wait for Trump to finish his trip this week to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, to allow the chance for a ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas.

If no deal emerges by then, Israel vows to begin to roll out this plan, combined with intensified military ground operations and the seizure of more territory in Gaza.

toggle caption Jehad Alshrafi/AP

Many of the plan’s details are still unresolved

According to the written proposal, the four initial aid distribution sites would serve a combined total of 1.2 million Palestinians. That is only about 60 percent of the estimated 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza. Huckabee said the aid distribution would be scaled up to serve larger populations.

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The main aid organizations working in Gaza are refusing to cooperate with the proposal, as presented by Israeli officials to the U.N. and its aid partners. Humanitarian groups say they cannot work with a program that refuses aid to anyone seeking it, even belligerents.

“It contravenes fundamental humanitarian principles and appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic — as part of a military strategy,” the United Nations and its aid partners in Gaza said in a joint statement. “We will not participate in any scheme that does not adhere to the global humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality.”

The U.S. says it is still in talks with aid professionals to finalize who would run the program. Huckabee said he did not have the details on who would fund the program, but cited some contributors who wish to remain unnamed.

toggle caption Jehad Alshrafi/AP

Why humanitarian aid groups oppose the program

The proposed U.S. aid program for Gaza would be a significant departure from the established U.N.-led system that has long been the cornerstone of humanitarian response in conflict zones, aid experts say.

It would skirt the already-existing system for aid delivery, replacing around 400 U.N. distribution points across Gaza with just around four distribution points, which experts say would overwhelm the system and make it hard to ensure fair distribution to hundreds of thousands of people.

It would advance Israel’s plans to coerce Palestinians to move from north to south Gaza on Egypt’s border, with eventual plans for the migration of Palestinians out of Gaza. Those are Israeli military strategies that humanitarian organizations do not want to endorse.

In the Iraq war, private security groups provided aid to civilians within the parameters of the Iraqi military, leading to ethical concerns, aid experts say.

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“The idea of getting aid is very important, but how aid is delivered is equally important. And there are massive red flags all over the place for this plan,” said Paul Spiegel, director of the center for humanitarian health at Johns Hopkins University.

NPR’s Fatma Tanis reported from Washington, D.C.