The Israel Defense Forces acknowledged on Friday that it was probing allegations that troops are using deadly fire on hungry aid-seeking Gazans, but vociferously denied that troops are being ordered by commanders to deliberately open fire on the Palestinian civilians.

The statement was issued after the Haaretz daily reported that the military launched a probe this week into potential war crimes committed by its troops and quoted unidentified soldiers as saying that the area was a “killing field” and that they were ordered to treat the aid seekers like combatants and using heavy live fire for crowd control.

The Haaretz report drew a first detailed response from the military regarding the near-daily deadly shootings around aid distribution sites. It also prompted a rare joint statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, accusing the left-wing newspaper of a “blood libel” against the IDF.

According to Haaretz, the mass-casualty incidents were discussed at a meeting earlier this week during which the Military Advocate General’s (MAG) Office directed the top-tier General Staff Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism to investigate suspected war crimes that have largely taken place near Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution sites.

The mechanism is an independent military body responsible for investigating unusual incidents amid the war.

During the meeting, officials in the MAG’s office expressed alarm over mounting global uproar over the killing of civilians en route to aid sites, Haaretz reported. Senior officers from the IDF’s Southern Command pushed back, claiming that the incidents have been isolated and that troops only fired at Palestinians who posed a threat.

Representatives from the MAG’s office disagreed, insisting that the Southern Command’s account doesn’t line up with the facts on the ground, according to a source who attended the meeting.

“The claim that these are isolated cases doesn’t align with incidents in which grenades were dropped from the air and mortars and artillery were fired at civilians,” a MAG representative is quoted as saying.

“This isn’t about a few people being killed — we’re talking about dozens of casualties every day,” the MAG official added.

The Hamas-run health ministry says 549 people have been killed and 4,000 have been wounded trying to pick up aid from GHF sites or while waiting for UN food trucks since May 27, when GHF launched.

The numbers have not been verified, but between May 27 and June 24, there were at least 19 IDF shooting incidents related to humanitarian aid distribution, according to a review of reports out of Gaza conducted by The Times of Israel.

In most of these cases, the IDF has admitted to opening fire and striking Palestinians, but characterized it as “warning shots” at those who got too close to soldiers or used site access routes when distribution sites were closed.

There has been widespread confusion about access to the aid, with the army imposing, for a time, a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew on approach routes to GHF sites. But locals often have to set out well before dawn to have any chance of retrieving food.

According to the report, soldiers are receiving orders to fire at people who approach the distribution sites before they open or remain there after they have closed. The report added that many of the instances of fire occurred at nighttime, meaning the Palestinians who were fired at possibly did not know they were in a forbidden area.

Israeli soldiers serving near the aid distribution sites described grim scenarios in interviews with Haaretz on condition of anonymity.

“It’s a killing field,” one soldier said. “Where I was stationed there, between one and five people were killed every day. They’re treated like a hostile force – no crowd-control measures, no tear gas – just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. Then, once the center opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach. Our form of communication is gunfire.”

“We open fire early in the morning if someone tries to get in line from a few hundred meters away, and sometimes we just charge at them from close range. But there’s no danger to the forces,” the soldier continued. “I’m not aware of a single instance of return fire. There’s no enemy, no weapons.”

He described the incidents as a deadly form of the children’s game “Red light, green light.”

“Firing mortars to keep hungry people away is neither professional nor humane. I know there are Hamas operatives among them, but there are also people who simply want to receive aid,” another soldier told Haaretz.

“It’s become a place with its own set of rules. The loss of human life means nothing. It’s not even an ‘unfortunate incident,’ like [the IDF] used to say.”

Another soldier told Haaretz: “This has become routine. You know it isn’t okay. You feel not okay with it, that the commanders are taking the law into their hands. But Gaza is a parallel universe, [we] move on very quickly. The truth is that most don’t even stop to think about it.”

Following the Haaretz report, the military put out a statement confirming that the high-level General Staff Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism was probing the matter.

However, it said that it strongly rejected the Haaretz report, adding that it is “operating to allow and facilitate the distribution of humanitarian aid by the American Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), and to secure the routes leading to the distribution centers, to allow the aid to reach the civilians rather than Hamas.

“The IDF did not instruct the forces to deliberately shoot at civilians, including those approaching the distribution centers. To be clear, IDF directives prohibit deliberate attacks on civilians.”

Nevertheless, the statement said that the IDF is trying to improve at minimizing “the potential friction” with civilians. “As part of this effort, IDF forces have recently taken steps to reorganize the area, including the installation of new fencing, signage, the opening of additional routes, and more.”

“Any allegation of a deviation from the law or IDF directives will be thoroughly examined, and further action will be taken as necessary,” the statement continued.

“The allegations of deliberate fire toward civilians presented in the article are not recognized in the field,” the IDF asserted.

“These are vicious lies designed to discredit the IDF — the most moral army in the world,” the statement said. “IDF soldiers receive clear orders to avoid harming innocent civilians, and they act accordingly.”

Following the report, the GHF agency said it was “not aware of any of these incidents.”

The GHF statement makes a point of asserting that the shootings have not taken place at or in the immediate vicinity of its distribution sites.

GHF notes in its statement that the “IDF is tasked with providing safe passage for aid-seekers to all humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza, including GHF,” its statement adds.

“These allegations are too grave to ignore and we therefore call on Israel to investigate them and transparently publish the results in a timely manner,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity called on Friday for the GHF relief effort to be immediately dismantled, saying it was “slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid” and that it “is degrading Palestinians by design, forcing them to choose between starvation or risking their lives for minimal supplies.”

There is an acute shortage of food and other basic supplies in Gaza after the nearly two-year military campaign by Israel that has displaced most of Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants, as Hamas continues to hold 50 Israelis hostage.

GHF argues that its model is more effective than the United Nations’ methods, asserting that its aid convoys have not been looted, as it has its gunmen who prevent such takeovers.

But the organization only operates up to four distribution sites across the  Strip, none of which are in the north, and Gazans are forced to walk long distances while crossing IDF lines to pick up the supplies.

International aid trucks and warehouses storing supplies have often been looted, with Israel accusing Hamas of stealing aid for its own fighters or to sell to finance its operations, an accusation Hamas denies, while others say the looters frequently are desperate and starving Palestinians.

The UN has acknowledged that its convoys have been plagued by looting, but has blamed armed gangs rather than Hamas and has insisted that the solution is for Israel to allow much more aid into Gaza so that demand decreases.

Israel launched its campaign in Gaza following the October 7, 2023, Hamas assault on southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are still holding 50 hostages, including 49 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 28 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Hamas is also holding the body of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 56,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas, including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.

Reuters contributed to this report.