Hamas health ministry says Israeli fire kills 29 Gazans waiting for aid

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said early Friday that Israeli fire killed 29 people and wounded 155 waiting to receive desperately needed aid in the besieged territory, but Israel said the reports were "erroneous".

Efforts mounted on Thursday to get more aid into the devastated Palestinian territory, where fighting still rages after mediators failed to reach a truce for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The health ministry said in a statement that citizens had gathered at a roundabout in Gaza City in the north when they were fired upon by Israeli forces, revising upward an initial toll of 11 killed and 100 wounded.

Mohammed Ghurab, director of emergency services at a hospital in northern Gaza, told AFP there were "direct shots by the occupation forces" on people who had gathered at the roundabout to wait for a food truck.

An AFP journalist on the scene saw several bodies and people who had been shot.

The Israeli military denied it had opened fire on the crowd of Gazans waiting for aid.

"Press reports that Israeli forces attacked dozens of Gazans at an aid distribution point are erroneous," it said in a brief statement, adding that it was "analyzing the incident seriously".

- 'No alternative' -

UN agencies have warned of famine in Gaza, which Israel besieged after the unprecedented attack by Hamas on October 7.

The humanitarian emergency has forced some countries to use airdrops and sea routes for aid supplies because of limited land access to Gaza via Jordan, Israel and Egypt.

The Spanish aid vessel Open Arms, towing about 200 tonnes of food, was nearing Israel's coast after departing Cyprus on Tuesday, the Marinetraffic website showed on Thursday.

Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos said a second, bigger vessel was being readied for the maritime aid corridor, which will be complemented by a temporary pier to be built off Gaza by US troops.

However, the air and sea missions are "no alternative" to land deliveries, 25 organisations including Amnesty International and Oxfam said in a statement.

Dire shortages have left many scrambling for scraps of aid, among them Mokhles al-Masry, 27, who was displaced from Beit Hanoun to Beit Lahia in northern Gaza.

"There is no food, nothing to feed our children. We can't even find a bottle of baby milk. We've been wandering around since early morning, hoping that a plane would drop parachutes," he said.

Amnesty's secretary general, Agnes Callamard, said the decision to build the pier, could enable the provision of more than two million meals a day, suggested that the international community seemed to accept that the war will drag on.