Netanyahu and Defense Minister deny IDF soldiers were ordered to shoot Gaza aid-seekers

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz have rejected a report in left-leaning Israeli daily Haaretz that claimed Israeli soldiers were given orders to shoot at Palestinians approaching aid sites inside Gaza.

More than 500 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds more wounded while seeking food since the newly formed US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began distributing aid at four main hubs across the territory about a month ago, according to Gaza's Hamas-controlled health ministry.

Thousands of Palestinians walk for hours to reach the hubs, moving through Israeli military zones where Palestinian witnesses say Israeli troops have opened fire on the aid seekers.

Haaretz quoted unnamed Israeli soldiers as saying they were told to fire at members of the crowds to keep them back, using unnecessary lethal force against people who appeared to pose no threat.

Mr Netanyahu and Mr Katz on Friday called the allegations in Haaretz's report 'malicious falsehoods designed to defame' the Israeli military.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed it was investigating incidents in which civilians had been harmed while approaching the sites, but rejected any allegations 'of deliberate fire toward civilians'.

GHF, meanwhile, said on social media it was 'not aware of any of the incidents' in the report, but the allegations were too grave to ignore.

'We therefore call on Israel to investigate them and transparently publish the results in a timely manner,' the group said.

Eighteen killed in IDF air strike near aid site

Palestinians trying to find food have frequently encountered chaos and violence on their way to, and on arrival at, GHF aid sites.

In one such incident on Thursday, 18 people were killed after an Israeli air strike hit a street in central Gaza's Deir al Balah, where a crowd was collecting bags of flour from a Palestinian police unit, witnesses said.

The police unit had confiscated the food supplies from gangs that have been looting aid convoys across Gaza in recent weeks.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians are desperate for food after Israel imposed a two-and-a-half month aid blockade on Gaza, preventing any food, water and medicine from entering the territory pending the set-up of the GHF sites.

Looting of aid has escalated since Israel resumed entry of supplies into Gaza in mid-May, albeit only a fraction of what is needed.

Shifa Hospital director Mohamed Abu Selmyiha told the Associated Press a further eight bodies arrived on Friday from a GHF site in Netzarim, although it was not immediately clear how they had died.

A GHF spokesperson challenged that assertion, saying they did not know of any incidents at or near their sites on Friday.

Twenty other bodies Dr Semlyiha's hospital received on Friday were the result of air strikes across northern Gaza, he said.

Independent efforts to prevent aid looting

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday urged a return to the UN's long-tested distribution system for aid in Gaza, where he said Israeli military operations have created 'a humanitarian crisis of horrific proportions'.

'The search for food must never be a death sentence,' Mr Guterres told UN reporters, while also urging Israeli and Palestinian leaders to show 'political courage' and agree to a ceasefire like the one forged between Israel and Iran.

Humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders also condemned the GHF aid distribution system as 'a slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid', and called for it to be immediately shut down.

An association of Gaza's influential clans and tribes said on Wednesday they had started an independent effort to guard aid convoys to prevent looting.

The National Gathering of Palestinian Clans and Tribes said it helped escort a rare shipment of flour that entered northern Gaza that evening.