WASHINGTON

A CNN investigation found that Israeli troops opened fire on crowds of Palestinians near an aid distribution site in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, leaving dozens of casualties.

Citing more than a dozen witnesses, CNN said Israeli troops shot at crowds in volleys of gunfire that occurred sporadically.

Dozens were shot dead in Gaza after Israeli forces opened fire on multiple occasions on Palestinians seeking aid brought in by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a group backed by the US and Israel that has been operating in the enclave since May 27.

According to the report, video evidence geolocated by CNN, along with expert analysis of recovered bullets and audio of sustained gunfire, indicates that the rounds were likely fired from Israeli military machine guns mounted on tanks stationed near the aid site.

“No one move, stay in your place!" a man is heard shouting in video clips posted to TikTok during the chaos.

According to the videos, Palestinians were running or ducking for shelter as tracer fire lit up the night sky.

"I saw people shot in the head next to me. I crouched, waited, prayed I’d live long enough to bring food back to my family," Mohammed Saqer, a survivor, told CNN. "We survived a night that was worse than we could imagine. The reality for people was one of death and hunger searching for food.”

The Israeli military declined to answer questions about CNN’s findings, per the report.

Robert Maher, a professor at Montana State University in the US, who specializes in forensic audio analysis, examined the footage for CNN and said the bursts of gunfire were at a rate of 15 and 16 shots per second (or 900 and 960 per minute), fired from a distance of about a quarter of a mile (450 meters).

“Since the cracks are irregular, it seems more like the gunfire was being sprayed over the area," Maher was quoted.

According to the report, the doctors working at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis shared photos with CNN of the bullets retrieved from patients who were injured and killed in the attack, which weapons experts said appear to match the type of ammunition used in the Israeli military’s machine guns.

At least 102 Palestinian civilians were killed and 490 injured while seeking humanitarian aid from Israeli-designated centers in Gaza in eight days, according to Gaza’s government.

Since March 2, Israel has kept all border crossings shut, cutting off the entry of food, medicine, fuel and other essential supplies for Gaza’s 2.4 million residents.

The Israeli army, rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing more than 54,600 Palestinians, most of them women and children.