Dozens of Palestinians shot by Israeli forces at aid sites, Gaza agencies say

Dozens more Palestinians were killed or injured in Gaza as they sought desperately needed aid yesterday, with reports that Israeli forces close to one distribution point had opened fire in the third such incident in as many days.

- Jason Burke Malak A Tantesh Gaza

More than a hundred people have been reported killed since Monday while either trying to reach aid points or waiting to stop and offload the limited number of UN and commercial trucks entering the devastated territory.

There have been about 20 such incidents in the past four weeks.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli fire had killed 15 people and wounded 60 between the town of Nuseirat and the centre of Gaza early yesterday morning after thousands had gathered in the hope of receiving rations.

Such reports are difficult to confirm independently, but interviews conducted by the Guardian with witnesses appear to corroborate many of the details.

Abdullah Ahmed, 31, said he had been less than a mile from an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US- and Israeli-backed private organisation, when there were a series of explosions and shootings at around 2am local time.

"I heard that the GHF site would open in the morning and set out early from my home [in the nearby town of al-Bureij] to get food.

"Because there are always many people, we try to be the first, to increase our chances of getting aid. When I was heading to the aid distribution point, there was heavy but intermittent gunfire from tanks, artillery and quadcopters," he said.