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At least 73 Palestinians are reported to have been shot dead by Israeli forces in Gaza on Sunday while waiting for food aid, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

It reported that Israeli soldiers killed at least 67 people in one incident when they opened fire on people waiting for UN aid lorries delivering food in northern Gaza, where people are reported to be starving.

The UN World Food Programme said its 25-truck convoy "encountered massive crowds of hungry civilians which came under gunfire", soon after crossing from Israel and clearing checkpoints.

The Israel Defence Forces said that they had "fired warning shots" to remove what they described as "an immediate threat" and disputed the number of reported deaths.

Reeta Chakrabarti presents BBC News at Ten reporting by Yolande Knell.

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Transcript
00:00In Gaza, health authorities run by Hamas say that 88 people have been killed by Israeli gunfire
00:06across the territory. In the worst single incident, a UN aid convoy in northern Gaza was met by what
00:13it called a massive crowd of hungry civilians, who the UN says were shot at. The Israeli military
00:20said soldiers had fired warning shots to remove an immediate threat, and it disputed the claim
00:25that 67 Palestinians had been killed. If correct, that figure would mark this as one of the
00:32bloodiest incidents yet in repeated violence as Palestinians search for food for their families.
00:38The BBC, like other international news organisations, is prevented from reporting from inside Gaza
00:43by Israel. So Yolande Nel sent this report from Jerusalem, and a warning, there are distressing
00:49images in her report.
00:54Weak and hungry, but in the dangerous wasteland of northern Gaza, these men returned triumphant
01:01today, with sacks of flour from the UN to feed their families.
01:07Tell the world, this man says, we got this flour by risking our lives, our blood.
01:14Dozens lost their lives, and even more were rushed in wounded to this Gaza city hospital.
01:20Short on all medical supplies, doctors called the scenes catastrophic.
01:25Witnesses described Israeli forces opening fire.
01:28We saw the trucks approaching, so we moved towards them. They started shooting. We raised our
01:34hands like this, says Mohye Zutouna. We were running and signalling that we had nothing,
01:39that we were peaceful. Then they started shooting at us. The latest bloodshed added to UN figures
01:46brings the number of Palestinians reportedly killed waiting for aid over the past two months
01:51to around 1,000. Israel's military says that in the latest incident, its soldiers felt threatened
01:59by a large crowd and fired warning shots. Further south, new evacuation orders from the army panicked
02:07tens of thousands of Palestinians around the city of Dirabalakh. Soon, people here began to flee,
02:14fearing that Israeli ground troops could now be preparing to enter this area for the first time
02:19in the war. They threw leaflets at us, and we don't know where we're going, says Adi Abu Qanis.
02:27We don't have shelter or anything. Holding up empty pots and dishes, Gazans want their desperation heard.
02:35Most are displaced and surviving on one meal a day, if that. Malnutrition is rising.
02:42We want the war to end and the crossings to open. We want the Palestinian people to live a normal life.
02:50We want food and water to be brought in. But for now, the handouts remain pitifully small,
02:56and there's still no breakthrough in indirect talks between Israel and Hamas on the truce and hostage
03:02release deal, which so many are hoping for. Yolande Nel, BBC News, Jerusalem.

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