The Israeli army killed at least 42 Palestinians, including several people seeking to reach food, in attacks in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, medics said.

Seven people were killed and four others injured in a strike targeting a gathering of civilians in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, a medical source said.

Three more people lost their lives and 20 others were injured when Israeli forces opened fire on hundreds of people waiting to get aid near distribution centers in Rafah in southern Gaza, the source added.

Israeli forces also killed 11 people and injured scores as a crowd was waiting for aid near the Netzarim Corridor in southern Gaza City, another medical source said.

The Israeli military allows only a limited number of aid trucks into Gaza, prompting large crowds of desperate civilians to gather, witnesses said.

According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, these gatherings have increasingly become targets of Israeli attacks or thefts by armed gangs supported by Israel to sow chaos.

Elsewhere in Gaza City, an Israeli airstrike on a home in the Zaytoun neighborhood killed three people, including a child, and wounded several others.

In central Gaza, a strike on a house in the Maghazi refugee camp killed 10 Palestinians and injured others.

Separately, in the southern city of Khan Younis, Israeli forces struck two tents sheltering displaced families in the Mawasi area, killing eight civilians, including children.

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing more than 55,600 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.