Israeli troops opened fire on Palestinians near food distribution hubs in southern Gaza, witnesses and Gaza hospital officials say.

Amid the Israel-Hamas war, the Israeli troops on Saturday opened fire toward crowds of Palestinians seeking food from distribution hubs run by a US-Israeli-backed group and 16 people were killed, PTI quoted witnesses and hospital officials as saying.

Israeli soldiers killed at least 25 people near a distribution centre for humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian medical sources on Saturday. About 70 people were injured by Israeli army gunfire and shelling in the Khan Younis area in the south of the sealed-off coastal region,

Top church leaders visited Gaza on Friday after its only Catholic church was struck by an Israeli shell the day before, an attack that killed three people and injured 10. The wounded included a priest who had developed a close friendship with the late Pope Francis.

Leaders from the Catholic and Greek Orthodox Church visited Gaza’s only Catholic church on Friday, where a day earlier three people were killed in an Israeli strike. The visit is highly unusual given Israel’s tight control over access in and out of the territory.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa entered Gaza on Friday to bring aid to victims of Israel's strike on the sole Catholic church in the Palestinian enclave, while he and a Vatican official questioned Israeli explanations for the incident.

Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. presented Israel and Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas with an updated Gaza ceasefire proposal on Wednesday, Axios reported on Thursday, citing two sources. The two main updates in the latest proposal had to do with the scope of the Israeli military's withdrawal from Gaza during a ceasefire and the ratio of Palestinian prisoners to be released for each Israeli hostage,

Abu Obeida says there will be no guarantee of a return to partial deals if Israel leaves the negotiating table again.