At least 30 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza

At least 30 people were killed, including four children, on Saturday as Israel intensifies its offensive on the Gaza Strip. Eyewitnesses say Israeli missiles targeted a displacement camp in the southern city of Khan Younis.

According to health officials at Nasser Hospital and morgue records, Israeli attacks on Saturday morning killed at least 14 people in Khan Younis, more than half of those killed were women and children.

"The entire Gaza Strip is under shelling ... To the south. To the north. Everywhere," Abu Agala, uncle of two children killed by raids overnight, told the Associated Press.

"Have mercy on us," added Hekmat Foujo, a woman who lost loved ones in the tent city attack.

Another five people seeking aid were killed as Israeli troops opened fire in the north, near the Zikim crossing with Israel, where convoys from the UN and other agencies are waiting to enter the enclave.

NGO and UN reports add pressure on Israel

An investigation conducted by the Forensic Architecture group in London and the World Peace Foundation in the United States confirmed at least 64 cases of Israeli troop attacks on Palestinian civilians seeking aid in Gaza.

The report also states that Palestinians are forced to walk an average of 6 kilometres to reach a rationing point of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the Delaware-based organisation which Israel has entrusted with the distribution of aid as a replacement for traditional UN systems.

According to local hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent, at least 10 more people were killed in other attacks elsewhere in the Gaza Strip on Saturday.

The Gaza Health Ministry says 62,622 people have been killed throughout Israel's 22-month offensive, though its figures do not distinguish between civilian and combatant casualties.

The UN says that more than two-thirds of deaths it has been able to independently verify were women and children.

The deaths came just hours after the UN announced that a famine is officially underway in Gaza city and other northern Palestinian territories.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has moved from warnings of an ongoing famine to an official realisation of what is happening in Gaza.

'Flat-out lies'?

It comes after 22 months of war and countless protests against the closure or limited opening of land crossings with the enclave to allow for the delivery of basic necessities to alleviate human suffering. So far, close to 300 Palestinians have been killed from malnutrition-related causes, including at least 114 children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The IPC says nearly half a million people, roughly a quarter of Gaza's population, are facing catastrophic hunger that puts many at risk of death. The UN has previously noted that over 90% of Gazans are at dire risk of starvation.

Israel denies those allegations, saying that Gaza has sufficient food to satisfy the population, as it continues to restrict the entry of food and medicine and prepares for an offensive to completely take control of Gaza city.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the IPC report as "a flat-out lie" as he moved to accuse Hamas of starving the hostages and looting aid.