ISRAELI forces killed at least 22 people and wounded 20 others today, with most victims killed while attempting to get desperately needed food aid in southern Gaza, according to witnesses, hospitals, and Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said it received the bodies of 11 people who were shot while returning from an aid site associated with the Israel and United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF) in southern Gaza.

The deaths add to the more than 500 Palestinians killed at the chaotic and controversial aid distribution programme over the past month. 

Ten others were killed at a United Nations aid warehouse in northern Gaza, according to the Health Ministry.

The southern Gaza strike happened around 1.8 miles from the GHF site in the city of Khan Younis, as Palestinians returned from the site along one of the only accessible routes. Palestinians are often forced to travel long distances to access the GHF hubs in hopes of obtaining aid.

Yousef Mahmoud Mokheimar was walking along with dozens of others when he saw troops in vehicles and tanks racing toward them. At the beginning they fired warning shots in air, before firing at the crowds, he said.

“They fired at us indiscriminately,” he said, adding that he was shot in his leg, and a man was also shot while attempting to rescue him.

He said he saw troops detaining six people, including three children, and it wasn’t clear what happened to them. “We don’t know whether they are still alive,” he said.

Monzer Hisham Ismail, another witness, said troops attacked the crowds while returning from the GHF hub in eastern Khan Younis.

“We were returning from the US aid hub [and] we were targeted by (the Israeli) artillery,” he said.

Nasser Hospital said another person was killed near a GHF hub in the southern city of Rafah.

The Israeli military said it was reviewing information about the attacks. 

This comes a day after a rampage by dozens of Israeli settlers around a military base in the Israeli-occupied West Bank drew rare rebuke from far-right Israeli lawmakers, mainly because Israeli soldiers rather than Palestinians were among the targets.

The settlers set things alight, vandalised military vehicles, sprayed graffiti and attacked soldiers, the military said.

Far-right Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has often defended Israelis accused of similar crimes, said: “Attacking security forces, security facilities, and IDF soldiers who are our brothers, our protectors, is a red line, and must be dealt with in full severity. We are brothers.” 

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich took to X to call those involved in the incident “criminals.”