Gazans still dying as world's attention turns elsewhere, UNRWA's Philippe Lazzarini says

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) on Monday lamented the rising death toll in Gaza as dozens more people were killed while trying to collect aid, saying "tragedies go on unabated while attention shifts elsewhere".

The Gaza Health Ministry said another 38 people were killed by Israeli fire while trying to collect food from centres run by the controversial US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

The latest in the near-daily shootings at GHF sites since it started operations three weeks ago raises the death toll to 338, with another 2,831 injured, it said.

The ministry said they were among 68 people killed since Sunday, as Israel continues to launch deadly strikes across the Palestinian enclave in its war against the militant group Hamas.

"Scores of people have been killed and injured in the past days including starving people trying to get some food from a lethal distribution system," UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on X.

"Restrictions on bringing in aid from the UN, including UNRWA, continue despite an abundance of assistance ready to be moved into Gaza. In addition, severe shortages of fuel are now hampering the delivery of critical services, especially health and water."

The ministry said most of latest deaths occurred near one of the GHF's aid sites in Rafah. Two witnesses told the Associated Press that Israeli forces opened fire around 4am on crowds gathered at a roundabout hundreds of metres from the centre.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which secures the areas around GHF sites. In previous incidents it has claimed troops fired warning shots at "suspects" approaching their positions.

Israel allowed the GHF to start operations in late May after imposing a nearly three-month blockade of all aid into Gaza. It said the new system, which has been condemned by the UN and international aid groups, is intended to stop supplies falling into the hands of Hamas.

UN rights chief Volker Turk said on Monday that Israel had "weaponised" food in Gaza and repeated a call for investigations into deadly attacks near the GHF sites.

"Israel’s means and methods of warfare are inflicting horrifying, unconscionable suffering on Palestinians in Gaza," he told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

"Disturbing, dehumanising rhetoric from senior Israeli government officials is reminiscent of the gravest of crimes," he said.

The limited amounts of aid being distributed to a population of more than two million at only four GHF sites has done little to alleviate desperate levels of hunger. More than 2,700 children under five face acute malnutrition, UNRWA said on Monday, while people are reportedly fainting on the streets from hunger.

The Gaza Health Ministry said the latest killings raised the Palestinian death toll from Israel's military offensive to 55,432, most of them women and children, with 128,923 injured.

The war began on October 7, 2023 when Hamas and other militant groups from Gaza attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and talking about 250 hostage.