GAZA CITY, Palestine 

At least 104 Palestinians were killed and 760 others injured when Israeli forces shelled a crowd waiting for humanitarian aid south of Gaza City on Thursday, the Health Ministry in the enclave said.

According to witnesses, hundreds of Palestinians were waiting to receive aid near Dowar al-Nablusi when they came under Israeli fire, eyewitnesses said.

The government media office accused the Israeli army of killing the victims “in cold blood” as Israel was aware of their presence in the area “to obtain food and aid.”

“The occupation had the premeditated intention to commit this horrific massacre,” it said in a statement.

The Israeli army, for its part, claimed that the fatalities occurred as a result of trampling and being struck by the aid trucks.

The army said an initial investigation found that some Palestinians approached an Israeli military checkpoint overseeing the entry of the aid trucks with soldiers firing warning shots and shooting at the legs of Palestinians who continued to move toward the troops.

Israel has launched a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.

At least 30,035 Palestinians have since been killed and over 70,457 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.