A shooting near Israeli- and US-supported food distribution points in the Gaza Strip left at least eight Palestinians dead Sunday, according to health officials.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli troops killed 20 people waiting to collect food on Monday, in the latest deadly incident near a US-backed aid centre in the Palestinian territory's south. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that "the (Israeli) occupation forces opened fire" near the Al-Alam roundabout in the southern city of Rafah,

Survivors from one of the shootings said Israeli forces began firing on the crowd of hungry Palestinians in the pre-dawn hours.