Deir al-Balah , Jun 14: At least 16 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip overnight and into Saturday, according to local health officials.

The 20-month war with Hamas has raged on even as Israel has opened a new front with heavy strikes on Iran that sparked retaliatory drone and missile attacks. Another 11 Palestinians were killed overnight near food distribution points run by an Israeli-and US-supported humanitarian group in the latest of almost daily shootings near the sites since they opened last month.

Palestinian witnesses say Israeli forces have fired on the crowds, while the military says it has only fired warning shots near people it describes as suspects who approached its forces.The military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest shootings. The sites are located in military zones that are off limits to independent media.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private contractor that operates the sites, said they were closed Saturday. But witnesses said thousands had gathered near the sites anyway, desperate for food as Israel’s blockade and military campaign have driven the territory to the brink of famine.

The al-Awda Hospital said it received eight bodies and at least 125 wounded people from a shooting near a GHF site in central Gaza.

Mohamed Abu Hussein, a resident of the built-up Bureij refugee camp nearby, said Israeli forces opened fire toward the crowd about a kilometre from the food distribution point. He said he saw several people fall to the ground as thousands ran away.

In the southern city of Khan Younis, the Nasser Hospital said it received 16 dead, including five women, from multiple Israeli strikes late Friday and early Saturday. It said another three men were killed near two GHF aid sites in the southernmost city of Rafah, now a mostly uninhabited military zone.

Israel and the United States say the new system is intended to replace a UN-run network that has distributed aid across Gaza through 20 months of war. They accuse Hamas of siphoning off the aid and reselling it to fund its militant activities.

UN officials deny Hamas has diverted significant amounts of aid and say the new system is unable to meet mounting needs. They say the new system has militarised aid by allowing Israel to decide who has access and by forcing Palestinians to travel long distances or relocate again after waves of displacement.

They say the UN has meanwhile struggled to deliver aid even after Israel eased its blockade last month because of military restrictions and rising lawlessness.

Hamas, which is allied with Iran, sparked the war when its fighters led a rampage into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251.

They still hold 53 hostages, less than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed over 55,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which has said women and children make up more than half of the dead but does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in count.

The offensive has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced 90 per cent of the population of some 2 million Palestinians, leaving them almost entirely reliant on international aid.

The war has drawn in Iran and its other allies across the region, igniting a chain of events that led to Israel’s major strikes on Iran’s nuclear and military facilities on Friday.

Tehran, June 14 : Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday said that any talks with the United States over Tehran’s nuclear programme are now “meaningless” following Israel’s recent attack on Iranian territory, according to a report by Mehr News Agency (MNA).

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei Hamaneh stated that the US cannot claim to be negotiating while allegedly permitting Israel to carry out military strikes.

“The other side (the US) acted in a way that makes dialogue meaningless. You cannot claim to negotiate and at the same time divide work by allowing the Zionist regime (Israel) to target Iran’s territory,” MNA, citing Baghaei, reported.

Baghaei also accused the US of supporting the Israeli attack. He said that the Israeli regime “succeeded in influencing” the diplomatic process and claimed the strike would not have happened without Washington’s permission.

Iran had previously accused the United States of being complicit in the Israeli military action. The sixth round of US-Iran nuclear talks was scheduled to take place on Sunday in Muscat. However, following the Israeli strikes, it remains unclear whether the meeting will proceed.

Mehr News Agency, citing Reuters, reported that US President Donald Trump said he and his team were aware that the Israeli attacks were going to happen, but still believed there was a possibility for an agreement.

Meanwhile, hours after the first Israeli strike, Trump issued a warning to Iran, urging it to strike a deal “before it is too late.”

In a statement shared on Truth Social, Trump said: “I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal. I told them, in the strongest of words, to ‘just do it,’ but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn’t get it done. I told them it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told, that the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, by far, and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come – and they know how to use it. Certain Iranian hardliners spoke bravely, but they didn’t know what was about to happen.”

“They are all DEAD now, and it will only get worse! There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end. Iran must make a deal before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire. No more death, no more destruction, Just do it, before it is too late. God Bless You All,”  he iraadded.

Trump’s comments come amid escalating tensions between Israel and Iran.

On Friday, Israel launched what it described as “pre-emptive” strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. In a clarification posted on X, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said: “Iran is closer than ever to obtaining a nuclear weapon. Weapons of mass destruction in the hands of the Iranian regime are an existential threat to the State of Israel and to the wider world. The State of Israel has no choice but to fulfil the obligation to act in defence of its citizens and will continue to do so everywhere it is required to do so.”

Following the attack, CNN reported that several of Iran’s top officials, including senior military leaders and nuclear scientists, were killed.

In response, Iran reportedly launched loitering munitions and missile strikes on Tel Aviv. Israel has since continued its counterstrikes.