At least 26 people were killed and more than 100 injured in shooting incidents near two Gaza aid sites early Saturday, Palestinian officials said, accusing the Israeli military of opening fire on people trying to secure food. The IDF said that troops had fired warning shots and that it was investigating reports of casualties.

The Hamas-run civil defense agency said 26 people were killed. The Associated Press, quoting witnesses and hospital officials, put the death toll at at least 32. Neither toll could immediately be verified.

The two incidents occurred near food-distribution hubs operated by the Israel-and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Agency spokesman Mahmud Basal, who Israel has accused of being a Hamas operative, told AFP that 22 people were killed near a site southwest of Khan Yunis and four near another center northwest of Rafah, blaming “Israeli gunfire” for both.

The Israel Defense Forces said it was aware of reports of casualties after troops fired warning shots and that overnight, Palestinians had approached Israeli forces in the Rafah area, “in a way that threatened the forces.”

“Troops operated to prevent the suspects from approaching them, called for them to distance themselves, and after they did not comply, the troops fired warning shots,” the IDF said.

According to the army, the incident took place a kilometer away from the closest aid site and during the night, when it was not open for Palestinians to collect aid packages.

The IDF said the incident is under further review.

The military also said Saturday that the Israeli Air Force had struck approximately 90 terror targets in Gaza over the past day, including buildings used by terror operatives and tunnels.

The strikes come as five IDF divisions, made up of tens of thousands of troops, continue ground operations across the Strip.

The Hamas-run health ministry said two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City.

Most of Saturday’s deaths occurred as Palestinians massed in the Teina area, around three kilometers (2 miles) away from a GHF aid distribution center east of the city of Khan Younis.

Mahmoud Mokeimar, an eyewitness, said he was walking with masses of people — mostly young men — toward the food hub. Troops fired warning shots as the crowds advanced, before opening fire toward the marching people.

“It was a massacre … the occupation opened fire at us indiscriminately,” he said. He said he managed to flee but saw at least three motionless bodies lying on the ground, and many other wounded fleeing.

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

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

Sanaa al-Jaberi, a 55-year-old woman, said she saw many dead and wounded as she fled the area.

“We shouted: ‘food, food,’ but they didn’t talk to us. They just opened fire,” she said.

The Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said it received 25 bodies, along with dozens wounded.

Seven other people, including one woman, were killed in the Shakoush area, hundreds of meters (yards) north of another GHF hub in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, the hospital said. The death toll was also reported by the Hamas-controlled health ministry.

Dr. Mohamed Saker, the head of Nasser’s nursing department, said it received 70 wounded people. He told The Associated Press that most of the casualties were shot in their heads and chests, and that some were placed in the already overwhelmed intensive care unit.

“The situation is difficult and tragic,” he said, adding that the facility lacks badly needed medical supplies to treat the daily flow of casualties.

Meanwhile, Fares Awad, head of the Health Ministry’s ambulance and emergency service in northern Gaza, confirmed the two deaths in Gaza City. He said an airstrike hit a tent in a camp sheltering displaced families in the courtyard of the Development Ministry. There were no further details on the target of the strike.

The reported casualties are the latest in a series of incidents over recent months, during which hundreds of people have been reported killed in repeated incidents of shooting near aid centers run by the GFH.

The GHF, which employs private armed guards, says there have been no deadly shootings at its sites, though this week, 20 people were killed at one of its locations, most of them in a stampede. The group accused Hamas agitators of causing a panic, but it was not possible to verify GHF’s claims regarding the affiliation of the agitators or what sparked the crush.

In videos obtained by the AP earlier this month from an American contractor working with GHF, contractors were seen using tear gas and stun grenades to keep crowds behind metal fences or to force them to disperse. Gunshots could also be heard.

GHF began operations in late May as Israel lifted a nearly three-month aid blockade on Gaza, amid a renewed offensive there that seeks to take over 75 percent of the Strip with the aim of defeating Hamas and securing the release of the hostages seized by the terror group during its October 7, 2023, attack.

The GHF has faced harsh criticism from the UN and other aid organizations, which called the aid group’s model “inherently unsafe” and charged that it fails to meet the needs of Gaza’s population.

While the GHF claims to have distributed millions of meals to hungry Palestinians, local health officials and witnesses report that hundreds of people have been killed by army fire as they try to reach the distribution hubs.

The IDF, which is not at the sites but secures them from a distance, has said it only fires warning shots if crowds get too close to its forces.

Israel, which accuses Hamas of hoarding aid, has accused the terror group of attacking Gazan aid seekers near GHF sites and falsifying death tolls. However, Israel has also acknowledged that “several” Palestinian civilians have been killed near GHF aid distribution sites.

The coastal enclave has been devastated by Israel’s war against Hamas, which began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping 251. Fifty hostages remain in Gaza, including 28 confirmed dead by the IDF.

The free flow of aid into Gaza is a key demand of Hamas in ongoing indirect talks with Israel for a 60-day ceasefire in the war, alongside a full military withdrawal.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 58,000 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.