DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip >> Hundreds of Palestinians stormed a United Nations food warehouse Wednesday in Gaza in a desperate attempt to get something to eat, shouting and shoving each other and even ripping off pieces of the building to get inside. Four people died in the chaos, hospital officials said.

The deaths came a day after a crowd was fired upon while overrunning a new aid-distribution site in the Gaza Strip set up by an Israeli and U.S.-backed foundation, killing at least one Palestinian and wounding 48 others, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.

The Israeli military, which guards the site from a distance, said it fired only warning shots to control the situation. The foundation said its military contractors guarding the site did not open fire. A Red Cross field hospital said the 48 people who were wounded suffered gunshot wounds, including women and children.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country killed senior Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar, the brother of Yahya Sinwar, one of the masterminds of the militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack, who was killed by Israeli forces last year. Speaking before parliament, Netanyahu included Sinwar in a list of Hamas leaders killed by Israeli forces, apparently confirming his death in a recent airstrike in Gaza.

In other developments Wednesday, Israel carried out airstrikes on the international airport in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, destroying the last plane belonging to the country’s flagship airline. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said it was the last plane used by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

The strikes came after Houthi rebels fired several missiles at Israel in recent days, without causing casualties. The Israeli military said it destroyed aircraft used by the rebels. It was not immediately clear if anyone was killed or wounded in the strikes.

The crowd of Palestinians broke through fences Tuesday around the distribution site where thousands had gathered. An Associated Press journalist heard Israeli tank and gunfire and saw a military helicopter firing flares.

The distribution hub outside Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah was opened Monday by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has been slated by Israel to take over aid operations.

The U.N. and other humanitarian organizations have rejected the new aid system, saying it will not be able to feed Gaza’s 2.3 million people and that it lets Israel use food to control the population. They have also warned of the risk of friction between Israeli troops and people seeking supplies.

Palestinians burst into the U.N.’s World Food Program warehouse Wednesday in the central Gaza Strip, pushing each other in the shadow of the cavernous facility’s main door. Others ripped off pieces of the metal walls in an effort to get inside.

Two people were fatally crushed in the crowd, while two others died of gunshot wounds, officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said.

Scores of aid-seekers could be seen carrying large bags of flour as they fought their way back out into the sunlight through throngs of people pressing to get inside. Each bag of flour weighs around 55 pounds.

A United Nations envoy compared the limited aid being allowed into Gaza to “a lifeboat after the ship has sunk.” Sigrid Kaag, acting U.N. special coordinator for the Mideast, told the U.N. Security Council that people facing famine in Gaza “have lost hope.”

“Instead of saying ‘goodbye,’ Palestinians in Gaza now say, ‘See you in heaven,’” Kaag said Wednesday.

The World Food Program, in response to the run on the warehouse, said “humanitarian needs have spiraled out of control” after the long blockade.

The Palestinian ambassador to the U.N. broke down Wednesday as he spoke of the 1,300 children killed and 4,000 wounded since a ceasefire ended in March, and the mothers seen “embracing their motionless bodies, caressing their hair, talking to them, apologizing to them.”

“If this is civilized,” Riyad Mansour said, “what is barbarism?”

Wael Tabsh, a displaced man from the city of Khan Younis, urged world leaders to help end the war.

“How long will this torture last?” he asked.