At least 40 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire and airstrikes on Gaza on Monday, including 10 seeking aid, health authorities said, adding another five had died of starvation in what humanitarian agencies say may be an unfolding famine.

The 10 died in two separate incidents near aid sites belonging to the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in central and southern Gaza, local medics said.

The United Nations says more than 1,000 people have been killed trying to receive aid in the enclave since the GHF began operating in May 2025, most of them shot by Israeli forces operating near GHF sites.

The GHF said there were no incidents at or near their sites on Monday. Reuters was unable to verify where the incidents took place.

Bilal Thari, 40, was among mourners at Gaza City’s Al Shifa hospital on Monday who had gathered to collect the bodies of Palestinians killed a day earlier by Israeli fire as they sought aid, Gaza health officials said.

“Everyone who goes there, comes back either with a bag of flour or carried back (on a wooden stretcher) as a martyr, or injured. No one comes back safe,” Thari said.

At least 13 Palestinians were killed on Sunday while waiting for the arrival of UN aid trucks at the Zikim crossing on the Israeli border with the northern Gaza Strip, the officials said.

At the hospital, some bodies were wrapped in thick patterned blankets because white shrouds needed for burials were in short supply due to continued Israeli border restrictions and the mounting number of daily deaths, Palestinians said.

“We don’t want war, we want peace, we want this misery to end. We are out on the streets, we all are hungry, we are all in bad shape, women are out there on the streets, we have nothing available for us to live a normal life like all human beings, there’s no life,” Thari said.

DEATHS FROM HUNGER

Meanwhile, five more people died of starvation or malnutrition over the last 24 hours, Gaza’s health ministry said on Monday.

The new deaths raised the toll of those dying from hunger to 180, including 93 children, since the war began.

UN agencies have said that airdrops of food are insufficient and that Israel must let in far more aid by land and quickly ease access to it.

The Gaza government media office said on Sunday that more than 600 aid trucks had arrived since Israel eased restrictions in late July.

However, witnesses and Hamas sources said many of those trucks have been looted by desperate displaced people and armed gangs.

Palestinian and UN officials said Gaza needs around 600 aid trucks to enter per day to meet the humanitarian requirements - the number Israel used to allow into Gaza before the war.

Israel’s offensive has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians.

According to Israeli officials, 50 hostages now remain in Gaza, only 20 of whom are believed to be alive.