New footage appeared to show workers at a controversial aid distribution system in Gaza firing at Palestinians before celebrating.

The alleged incident took place at a site in the heavily bombarded enclave run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a UN-led system that Israel says had let militants divert aid.

However, 171 charities signed an open letter demanding countries press Israel to halt the GHF scheme and reinstate UN-coordinated aid into Gaza amid claims by local medical authorities that more than 500 people have been killed in mass shootings near the sites.

Palestinians walk back through the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza carrying aid parcels received from a US-based aid distribution point

In the footage posted to social media, gunshots could be heard with an American voice saying: "I think you got one."

Another voice then responds shouting: "Hell, yeah, boy!"

Elsewhere, whistle blowers told the BBC about guards with machine guns opening fire from a watchtower because a group of women, children and elderly people were moving away from the site too slowly.

They said: "A Palestinian man dropped to the ground motionless. And then the other contractor, who was standing there, was like ‘damn, I think you got one’. And then they laughed about it."

Palestinians gather to collect what remains of relief supplies from a GHF site

A GHF spokesman categorically denied the accusations, adding that no civilians have ever come under fire at their distribution sites.

They said it was operating in the face of people with a "vested interest" in seeing it fail, denying any misconduct or lack of experience among staff.

The Israeli military acknowledged earlier this week that Palestinian civilians have been harmed at aid distribution centres in Gaza, saying that Israeli forces had been issued new instructions following what it called "lessons learned".

Israel has repeatedly said its forces operate near the centres in order to prevent the aid from falling into the hands of Palestinian Hamas militants.

Palestinians inspect the site of Thursday's Israeli strike on Gaza City

Doctors Without Borders told reporters in an online press briefing that within the last month, two of its small primary health centres had received 22 dead and 548 wounded people.

Those who died had received fatal wounds to the chest and in abdomen.

Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa, one of the group's emergency coordinators in Gaza, said: "They are not warning shots. They are shots directed towards the people."

Humanitarian director for Save the Children in Gaza Rachel Cummings said in over half of the mass casualty incidents near food distribution sites, children have been shot and killed, said

She said: "Children have told us they want to die... to be with their mother or father who have been killed. They want to be in paradise because there is food and water."

In a response, the GHF told reporters it had delivered more than 52 million meals in five weeks and said other humanitarian groups had "nearly all of their aid looted".

A spokesman said: "Instead of bickering and throwing insults from the sidelines, we would welcome other humanitarian groups to join us and feed the people in Gaza,"

A Palestinian woman carries a water container as she walks past the rubble of a building destroyed in the Israeli attack

Earlier today, the GHF said two American aid workers had suffered non-life-threatening injuries in a grenade attack at a food distribution site.

A spokesman said: "The attack, which preliminary information indicates was carried out by two assailants who threw two grenades at the Americans, occurred at the conclusion of an otherwise successful distribution in which thousands of Gazans safely received food."

Gazan authorities reported at least 70 people have been killed in the territory by the Israeli military in the last 24 hours, including 23 near aid distribution sites. The ministry did not specify where or how exactly they had been killed.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the reports.

The destruction in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border

Since Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade on Gaza on May 19, the UN said more than 400 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid handouts.

A senior UN official said last week that the majority of people killed were trying to reach aid distribution sites of the GHF.

The most recent conflict between Israel and Palestine was triggered in October 2023, when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Gaza's health ministry says Israel's retaliatory military assault on the enclave has killed over 57,000 Palestinians.

It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced Gaza's entire population and prompted accusations of genocide and war crimes.

The Israeli government strongly denies these accusations.