Gaza’s Government Media Office accuses Israel of “a horrific, intentionally repeated crime”, saying it has been luring starving Palestinians to its US-backed aid distribution centres and then opening fire on them, Al Jazeera reports.

It said today’s death toll — 27 — brought the number of aid seekers killed at aid sites in the Rafah governorate and the so-called Netzarim Corridor to 102, with 490 others injured.

“The so-called ‘aid’ distribution centres, which are located in exposed and dangerous red zones under the control of the occupation army, have turned into mass bloodbaths, luring starving civilians to them as a result of the crippling famine and the tightening siege,” the statement published on Telegram said.

“They are then deliberately and coldly shot, in a scene that epitomises the malice of the project and exposes its true objectives,” it added.

The Media Office called on “the United Nations, its Security Council and human rights organisations to assume their moral and legal responsibilities, take immediate action, and exert pressure using all available means to open official crossings without interference or conditions from the occupation”.