Gaza’s civil defence agency said that Israeli forces killed at least 62 people on Friday, including 10 who were waiting for aid in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

The reported killing of people seeking aid marks the latest in a string of deadly incidents near aid sites in Gaza, where a US- and Israeli-backed foundation has largely replaced established humanitarian organisations.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 62 Palestinians had been killed Friday by Israeli strikes or fire across the Palestinian territory.

When asked by AFP for comment, the Israeli military said it was looking into the incidents, and denied its troops fired in one of the locations in central Gaza where rescuers said one aid seeker was killed.

Bassal told AFP that six people were killed in southern Gaza near one of the distribution sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), and one more in a separate incident in the centre of the territory, where the army denied shooting “at all”.

Another three people were killed by a strike while waiting for aid southwest of Gaza City, Bassal said.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory says that since late May, more than 500 people have been killed near aid centres while seeking scarce supplies.

GHF has denied that fatal shootings have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Friday slammed the GHF relief effort, calling it “slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid”.