



DEIR al-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli airstrikes killed 15 Palestinians in Gaza early Friday, while a hospital said 20 people died in shootings while waiting for aid.
Meanwhile, the U.N. human rights office says it has recorded 613 killings within the span of a month in Gaza near humanitarian convoys and as Palestinians try to reach aid at distribution points run by an Israeli-backed American organization since it began operations in late May.
Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said the rights office was not able to attribute responsibility for the killings, but “it is clear that the Israeli military has shelled and shot at Palestinians trying to reach the distribution points” operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Shamdasani said 509 killings of the total tallied were “GHF-related,” meaning at or near its distribution sites.
“Information keeps coming in,” she said. “This is ongoing and it is unacceptable.”
The GHF has denied any serious injuries or deaths on its sites and says shootings outside their immediate vicinity are under the purview of Israel’s military.
The Israeli military also issued new evacuation orders Friday in northeast Khan Younis and urged Palestinians to move west ahead of planned military operations against Hamas in the area. The new evacuation zones pushed Palestinians into increasingly smaller spaces near the coast.
More deaths reported near aid distribution sites occurred overnight Friday, according to officials in Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
At least three Palestinians were killed near aid sites in Rafah, which is close to two operated by GHF. An additional 17 were killed waiting for trucks to pass by in eastern Khan Younis in the Tahliya area.
Of the 15 Palestinians killed in Friday’s strikes, eight were women and one was a child, the hospital said. The strikes hit the Muwasi area, where many displaced Palestinians are sheltering in tents.
Israel’s military said it was looking into Friday’s reported strikes. The military, whose forces are deployed on the roads leading to the aid distribution sites, previously said it fires warning shots to control crowds or at Palestinians who approach its troops and says it’s looking into reports of civilian harm.
Shamdasani originally told a U.N. briefing that the recent spate of killings were recorded at GHF sites and near humanitarian convoys. She later clarified that the killings in the vicinity of GHF distribution points were “at or near their distribution sites.”
In its statement reacting to the U.N. rights office report, GHF accused the U.N. of taking its casualty figures “directly from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry” and of “promoting Hamas’ false propaganda.”
But Shamdasani said the data “is based on our own information gathering through various reliable sources, including medical, human rights and humanitarian organizations.”
Also on Friday, Israel’s military said two soldiers were killed in combat in the north of Gaza and it was investigating. More than 860 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the war began, including over 400 during the fighting in Gaza.
The recent killings took place as efforts to halt the 21-month war appeared to be moving forward.
“We’ll see what happens. We’re going to know over the next 24 hours,” U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters late Thursday on Air Force One.
Hamas said Friday that it was holding discussions with leaders of other Palestinian factions to discuss a ceasefire proposal presented to it by Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
Trump said Tuesday that Israel had agreed on terms for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza and urged Hamas to accept the deal before conditions worsen.
The Health Ministry in Gaza said the number of Palestinians killed in the territory has passed 57,000. The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.