Four killed while trying to find aid

ISRAELI forces killed four aid seekers travelling yesterday through a military zone south of Gaza City - an area regularly used by Palestinians trying to reach a food distribution point, a hospital and witnesses said.

- ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTERS

The deaths add to the growing toll of Palestinians killed while seeking food, as parts of the Gaza Strip plunge into famine and Israel's military ramps up activity in northern Gaza ahead of a planned offensive to seize its largest city.

Al-Awda Hospital and two witnesses told the Associated Press that the four Palestinians were killed when troops opened fire on a crowd heading to a site run by the Israeli-backed American contractor Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, in the Netzarim corridor area. It occurred hundreds of metres away from the site.