Men carry the body of a Palestinian killed in an early morning incident when Israeli forces opened fire on crowds rushing at an aid distribution point in Gaza City on February 29, 2024.
Gaza City and the rest of northern Gaza were the first targets of Israel's air, sea and ground offensive on 7 October.
North Gaza has suffered widespread devastation and has been completely blockaded by the Israeli army, with little aid entering.
Aid groups say it has become nearly impossible to deliver humanitarian assistance in most of Gaza.
The UN says a quarter of Gaza's 2.3 million Palestinians face starvation.
Earlier on Thursday, Dr. Jadallah Shafai, the head of the nursing department at Shifa Hospital, told the Al Jazeera network that around 50 people were killed and 250 wounded. He did not provide a precise toll. Al Jazeera ran footage showing several bodies and injured people arriving at Shifa.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, said it had received at least 10 bodies and 160 wounded people.
Fares Afana, the head of the ambulance service at Kamal Adwan, said medics arriving at the scene found “dozens or hundreds” lying on the ground. He said there were not enough ambulances to collect all the dead and wounded and that some were being brought to hospitals on donkey carts.
Dr, Mohammad Salha, the acting director of the Al-Awda Hospital, said it received 90 wounded and three dead, who were transferred to Kamal Adwan.
“We expect a rise in the number killed,” he said. “There are many wounded still at the reception and the emergency room.”
He said Al-Awda is largely out of commission, with no electricity and the operating room running on battery power with only hours left. Gaza's health sector is under severe strain nearly five months into the Israel-Hamas war.
The Palestinian health ministry says nearly 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, two-thirds of them women and children.
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