ISRAELI forces killed at least four more Palestinians seeking aid today through a military zone south of Gaza City.

The area where the killings were carried out by the Israelis is regularly used by Palestinians trying to reach a food distribution point, a hospital and witnesses said.

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 eyewitnesses said four Palestinians were killed when troops opened fire on a crowd heading to a site run by the United States and Israeli-backed contractor Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), in the Netzarim corridor area. 

It occurred hundreds of yards away from the site, the eyewitnesses said.

“The gunfire was indiscriminate,” Mohamed Abed, a father of two from the Bureij refugee camp, said, adding that while many fled some people fell to the ground after being shot.

Mr Abed and Aymed Sayyad, another aid seeker among the crowd, said troops opened fire when a group near the front of the crowd pushed forward toward a distribution site before its scheduled opening.

The Israeli military and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

More than 2,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 13,500 wounded while seeking aid at distribution points or along convoy routes used by the UN and other aid groups, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The ministry said on Sunday that at least 62,686 Palestinians have been killed in the war, including missing people now confirmed dead by a special ministry judicial committee.

It said the number of malnutrition-related deaths rose by eight to 289 on Sunday. 

Meanwhile, Israeli former defence minister Benny Gantz called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday to forge a unity government along with members of the opposition in a bid to help release the hostages held in Gaza.

Mr Netanyahu’s coalition government depends on support from far-right members who oppose ending the war and making any deal with Palestinian group Hamas.  

Mr Gantz, a long-time rival of Mr Netanyahu who nonetheless joined his government in the early days of the war, told a televised press conference: “I am here on behalf of the hostages who have no voice. I am here for the soldiers who are crying out, and whom no-one in this government is listening to.”