34 killed in deadliest day of shootings near Gaza's new food distribution centers

**media[20042]**DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli troops opened fire Monday as crowds tried to reach Israeli- and U.S.-supported food distribution centers in Gaza, witnesses said. The 34 people killed, according to health officials, made it the deadliest day of such shootings since the new aid system launched last month.The Israeli military didn't immediately comment on Monday's shootings. But after some previous ones that have been a near-daily occurrence since the aid centers opened three weeks ago, it said its troops had fired warning shots at what it called suspects approaching their positions, though it didn't say whether those shots struck anyone.Palestinians say they face the choice of starving or risking death as they make their way past Israeli forces to reach the distribution points, which are run by a private contractor, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza says several hundred people have been killed and hundreds more wounded in such shootings since the centers opened.The ministry said 33 Palestinians were killed Monday trying to reach the GHF center near the southern city of Rafah and another was killed while headed to a GHF hub in central Gaza. It said four other people who weren't trying to get to distribution centers were killed elsewhere.Palestinians are desperate to feed their families after most food ran out during the 2½ months this year when Israel barred all supplies from entering the territory. Israel has eased the blockade since last month to let in a trickle of aid.Witnesses describe crowds under fireIsraeli troops started firing as thousands of Palestinians massed around 4 a.m. at the Flag Roundabout before the scheduled opening time of the Rafah food center, according to Heba Jouda and Mohamed Abed, two Palestinians who were in the crowd.People fell to the ground, trying to take cover, they said. Fire was coming from everywhere, said Jouda, who has repeatedly made the journey to get food for her family over the past week. It's getting worse day by day, she said.The Red Cross field hospital nearby received some 200 injured Monday, the highest single mass casualty event it has seen, the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement. Only a day earlier, it said, around 170 were brought to the facility, most of them wounded by gunshots while trying to reach the GHF center. The Health Ministry toll made it the deadliest day around the food sites since June 2, when 31 people were killed.The Flag Roundabout, hundreds of meters (yards) from the GHF center, has been the scene of repeated shootings. It is on the route designated by the Israeli military for people to take to reach the center.A new aid distribution systemIsrael and the United States say the GHF system is intended to replace the U.N.-led humanitarian operation that has delivered aid across Gaza since the start of the 20-month Israel-Hamas war. Israel contends that the new mechanism is needed to prevent Hamas from siphoning off aid.U.N. agencies and major aid groups deny that there is widespread theft of aid by Hamas and have rejected the new system. They say it can't meet the population's needs and turns food into a weapon for Israel to carry out its military goals, including moving the more than 2 million Palestinians into a sterile enclave in the southern Gaza.Speaking at Britain's House of Commons' Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday, an official with Doctors Without Borders said Israel's claims of extensive diversion by Hamas were specious and cynical, and were intended to undermine a humanitarian system which was actually functioning.This is neither a humanitarian enterprise nor a system. This is basically lethal chaos, Anna Halford, a field coordinator for the group, said when asked by lawmakers about the GHF centers.Experts warn that Israel's ongoing military campaign and restrictions on aid entry have put Gaza at risk of famine.