32 Palestinians shot dead trying to reach US group's food distribution sites, Gaza authorities say

DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli troops opened fire Saturday toward crowds of Palestinians seeking food from distribution hubs run by a U.S.- and Israeli-backed group in southern Gaza, killing at least 32 people, according to witnesses and hospital officials.

The shootings occurred near hubs operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which launched operations in May. The U.S. and Israel seek to replace the traditional U.N.-led aid distribution system in Gaza, asserting that Hamas militants siphon off supplies. The U.N. denies the allegation.

While GHF says it has distributed millions of meals to hungry Palestinians, local health officials and witnesses say Israeli army fire has killed hundreds of people as they try to reach the hubs. GHF’s four sites are in military-controlled zones.

Israel's army, which isn't at the sites but secures them from a distance, said Saturday that it fired warning shots near Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, after a group of suspects approached troops and ignored calls to keep their distance. It said the incident occurred overnight when the distribution site was closed.

GHF said that there were no incidents at or near its sites and added, “we have repeatedly warned aid seekers not to travel to our sites overnight and early morning hours."

Most of Saturday’s deaths occurred as Palestinians massed around 3 kilometers (2 miles) from a GHF aid distribution center near the southern city of Khan Younis.

Mahmoud Mokeimar said that he was walking with masses of people, mostly young men, toward the hub. Troops fired warning shots, and then opened fire.

“The occupation opened fire at us indiscriminately,” he said. He said that he saw at least three motionless bodies on the ground and many wounded people fleeing.

Akram Aker, another witness, said that troops fired machine guns mounted on tanks and drones between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m.

“They encircled us and started firing directly at us,” Aker said. He said he saw many casualties on the ground.

Sanaa al-Jaberi said that there was shooting after the site opened as people seeking aid broke into a run.

“Is this food or death? Why? They don’t talk with us, they only shoot us,” she said, and showed off her empty bag.

Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said that it received 25 bodies. Seven other people, including one woman, were killed in the Shakoush area, hundreds of meters or yards north of another GHF hub in Rafah, the hospital said.

Dr. Mohamed Saker, the head of Nasser's nursing department, said that it received 70 wounded people. He told The Associated Press that most people were shot in the head and chest.

“The situation is difficult and tragic,” he said, adding that the facility lacks medical supplies. Some of the wounded, including a child, were treated on the floor. One boy stood patiently, holding up a blood bag for someone on a stretcher.

Meanwhile, Fares Awad, head of the Health Ministry's ambulance and emergency service in northern Gaza, said that two people were killed in Gaza City when an airstrike hit a tent in a camp sheltering displaced families.

In central Gaza, Al-Awda Hospital said that 12 people were killed in an airstrike including police official Omar Aqel. Two children, including an infant, and five women — all relatives of Aqel — were among the dead.

Al-Awda Hospital said that it also received two people killed by an Israeli strike on a group of people in Bureij, and that another strike on a group of people along Salah El Din street in central Gaza killed a child.

Another strike on a house in the Gaza City neighborhood of Sheikh Radwan killed at least four people, according to the Health Ministry’s ambulance and emergency service. A strike on a cart in Tal al-Hawa in northern Gaza killed another four people, the service said.

Israel's army had no comment on specific strikes, but said that it had struck around 90 targets throughout Gaza over the past day.

Gaza’s population of more than 2 million Palestinians are in a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. Distribution at GHF sites is often chaotic. Boxes of food are stacked on the ground and crowds surge in to grab whatever they can, according to witnesses and videos released by GHF.

Hamas triggered the 21-month war when militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage. Fifty remain, but fewer than half are thought to be alive.

Israel's military offensive has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn't say how many militants are among the dead. The ministry, which says more than half of the dead have been women and children, is part of the Hamas government. But the U.N. and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.

Israel and Hamas have been holding ceasefire talks in Qatar, but international mediators say there have been no breakthroughs.

“After 652 days, it is time to do what is right for Israel: Bring all 50 hostages home and end this war,” Efrat Machikawa, a relative of released hostage Gadi Moses, told the weekly rally in Tel Aviv.

Thousands of people later marched to the local branch of the U.S. Embassy to demand a ceasefire deal.

In the occupied West Bank, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee visited the Palestinian Christian village, Taybeh, where residents say extremist Israeli settlers set fire to the Church of St. George on July 9.

Huckabee, an evangelical Christian who is normally strongly supportive of Israel, condemned the attack.

“To commit an act of sacrilege by desecrating a place that is supposed to be a place of worship — it's an act of terror and it's a crime,” he said.

The West Bank has experienced a surge in settler violence since the start of the war in Gaza. Palestinians say Israeli security forces have done little to stop the violence, and few settlers have been punished.

Samy Magdy reported from Cairo.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli army airstrike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A man pulls a cart loaded with jerrycans and plastic bottles with water after collecting it at a camp for displaced people in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A Palestinian man who was injured during a food distribution at a center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed organization approved by Israel, waits for treatment on the floor of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)

Children sit in their tent at a camp for displaced Palestinians, located near a rainwater collection reservoir that has been contaminated by sewage and garbage following the Israeli air and ground operations in Gaza City, Friday, July 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians who were injured during a food distribution at a center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed organization approved by Israel, receive treatment on the floor of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)

Palestinians who were injured during a food distribution at a center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed organization approved by Israel, receive treatment on the floor of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)

Palestinians who were injured during a food distribution at a center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed organization approved by Israel, receive treatment on the floor of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Palestinians injured and killed at an aid distribution center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed organization approved by Israel, are seen on the floor of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)

Relatives of Palestinians killed at an aid distribution center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed organization approved by Israel, mourn over their bodies during their funeral at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)

A Palestinian man who was injured during a food distribution at a center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed organization approved by Israel, is carried into Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)

A Palestinian man who was injured at an aid distribution center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed organization approved by Israel, receives treatment on the floor of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)

People take part in a protest outside US Embassy Branch demanding the end of the war and immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli army airstrike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A man pulls a cart loaded with jerrycans and plastic bottles with water after collecting it at a camp for displaced people in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A Palestinian man who was injured during a food distribution at a center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed organization approved by Israel, waits for treatment on the floor of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)

Children sit in their tent at a camp for displaced Palestinians, located near a rainwater collection reservoir that has been contaminated by sewage and garbage following the Israeli air and ground operations in Gaza City, Friday, July 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians who were injured during a food distribution at a center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed organization approved by Israel, receive treatment on the floor of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)

Palestinians who were injured during a food distribution at a center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed organization approved by Israel, receive treatment on the floor of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)

Palestinians who were injured during a food distribution at a center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed organization approved by Israel, receive treatment on the floor of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Palestinians injured and killed at an aid distribution center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed organization approved by Israel, are seen on the floor of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)

Relatives of Palestinians killed at an aid distribution center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed organization approved by Israel, mourn over their bodies during their funeral at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)

A Palestinian man who was injured during a food distribution at a center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed organization approved by Israel, is carried into Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)

A Palestinian man who was injured at an aid distribution center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed organization approved by Israel, receives treatment on the floor of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)

A Ukrainian drone strike killed one person and wounded three others in the Russian city of Voronezh, local officials said Sunday.

A young woman died overnight in a hospital intensive care unit after debris from a drone fell on a house during the attack on Saturday, regional Gov. Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.

Three other people were wounded and more than 10 apartment buildings, private houses and a high school were damaged, he said, adding that air defenses shot down 17 drones over Voronezh. The city is home to just over 1 million people and lies some 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

The attack came the day after Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles overnight into Friday, killing at least four people in the capital Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials.

For only the second time in the nearly four-year war, Russia used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv and NATO.

The intense barrage and the launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile followed reports of major progress in talks between Ukraine and its allies on how to defend the country from further aggression by Moscow if a U.S.-led peace deal is struck.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday in his nightly address that Ukrainian negotiators “continue to communicate with the American side.”

Chief negotiator Rustem Umerov was in contact with U.S. partners Saturday, he said.

Separately, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia targeted Ukraine with 154 drones overnight into Sunday and 125 were shot down.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

This photo provided by the Ukrainian Security Service on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, shows a fragment believed to be a part of a Russian Oreshnik intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile that hit the Lviv region. (Ukrainian Security Service via AP)

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, second left, listens to British Defense Secretary John Healey during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)