Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli attacks killed 32 people and wounded more than 100 near two aid centres in the south of the Palestinian territory.

Agency spokesman Mahmud Basal told AFP that Israeli gunfire killed Palestinian aid seekers near a site southwest of Khan Younis and another centre northwest of Rafah.

An eyewitness said he headed to the Al-Tina area of Khan Younis before dawn with five of his relatives to try to get food, when Israeli soldiers started shooting.

“My relatives and I were unable to get anything,” Abdul Aziz Abed, 37, told AFP. “Every day I go there and all we get is bullets and exhaustion instead of food.”

The Israeli military said it was “looking into” the attacks.

The more than two million people in Gaza are facing severe shortages of food and other essentials, and doctors have reported a spike in acute malnutrition.

Deaths of people waiting for aid in huge crowds near aid distribution centres have become a regular occurrence. 

Earlier this week, the UN said it had recorded 875 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food, including 674 in the vicinity of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, since the the US and Israel backed organisation began operating.