Israeli tanks have fired into a crowd trying to get aid from trucks in Gaza, killing at least 59 people, according to medics, in one of the bloodiest incidents yet in mounting violence as desperate residents struggle for food.

Video shared on social media on Tuesday showed around a dozen mangled bodies lying in a street in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. The Israeli forces acknowledged firing in the area and said it was looking into the incident.

Witnesses said Israeli tanks had launched at least two shells at a crowd of thousands who had gathered on the main eastern road through Khan Younis in the hope of obtaining food from aid trucks that use the route.

"All of a sudden, they let us move forward and made everyone gather, and then shells started falling, tank shells," said Alaa, an eyewitness, said at Nasser Hospital, where wounded victims lay sprawled on the floor and in corridors due to the lack of space.

"No one is looking at these people with mercy. The people are dying, they are being torn apart, to get food for their children. Look at these people, all these people are torn to get flour to feed their children."

Palestinian medics said at least 59 people were killed and 221 wounded in the incident, at least 20 of them in critical condition. Casualties were being rushed into the hospital in civilian cars, rickshaws and donkey carts.

Worst death toll since aid resumed in May

It was the worst death toll in a single day since aid resumed in Gaza in May.

In a statement, the Israeli forces said: "Earlier today, a gathering was identified adjacent to an aid distribution truck that got stuck in the area of Khan Younis, and in proximity to Israeli troops operating in the area.”

Medics said at least 14 other people were also killed by Israeli gunfire and airstrikes elsewhere in the densely populated enclave, taking Tuesday's overall death toll to at least 73.

The health ministry said 397 Palestinians, among those trying to get food aid, had been killed and more than 3,000 were wounded since late May.

The incident was the latest in nearly daily large-scale killings of Palestinians seeking aid in the three weeks since Israel partially lifted a total blockade on the territory it had imposed for nearly three months.

The United Nations rejects the system as inadequate, dangerous and a violation of humanitarian impartiality rules.

Gaza authorities say hundreds of Palestinians have been killed trying to reach GHF sites.

Israel's subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians since October 2023, while displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million and causing a hunger crisis.