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A Palestinian woman walks crying through a destroyed street in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday

Photo: AFP

Apparently there are numerous dead and injured, but it is still unclear what exactly happened in Gaza City on Thursday.

Hamas claims Israeli soldiers fired on people gathered around a roundabout in Gaza City to wait for aid deliveries.

At least 20 people were killed and 155 others were injured.

The Israeli army rejects the allegations.

"The press information according to which the Israeli armed forces attacked dozens of residents of the Gaza Strip at an aid distribution point is false," the Israeli military said in a short statement on Friday night.

The incident will be “investigated with the necessary thoroughness.”

An employee of the AFP news agency said he saw bodies and injured people with gunshot wounds at the scene.

The US news channel CNN quotes an eyewitness who claims to have seen dozens of dead people.

And a correspondent for the Arabic television channel Al Jazeera reported that Israeli soldiers opened fire from a helicopter.

The AFP agency spoke to the head of the emergency room at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Mohammed Ghurab.

He says: "There were direct shots from the occupation troops at people who had gathered at the Kuwait roundabout to wait for the arrival of trucks with food."

The Hamas Ministry of Health initially said there were eleven dead, then increased the number to 14 and finally to 20.

The reports bring back memories of the catastrophe that occurred in Gaza City at the end of February and which caused consternation around the world: dozens of Palestinians died during the planned distribution of aid supplies.

In this case, the Israeli army has acknowledged a "limited" number of shots fired by Israeli soldiers.

It was said that most people were crushed in the mass crush.

A spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, however, spoke of a "massacre" in which 104 people were killed and more than 750 people were injured.

Bundeswehr is preparing to drop relief supplies

After more than five months of war between Israel and Hamas, the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is catastrophic.

According to the UN World Food Program, the 2.4 million Palestinians living there are on the brink of famine.

Several countries are now dropping aid supplies from the air.

Germany will also take part in the airlift from Jordan to supply the people in the Gaza Strip.

On Thursday, the first Bundeswehr aircraft landed in Jordan, as the Air Force announced on X.

“We are unloading the material we brought with us and preparing for the upcoming flights.” A second C130J aircraft is on its way to the region.

vet/AFP