At least 26 people died and 150 others were injured after an Israeli tank shelling and gunfire in close to an aid distribution unit in Rafah city in Gaza on Sunday, media reports said.

Mohammed Ghareeb, a local journalist in Rafah, told the BBC that thousands of Palestinians had gathered near the aid centre when Israeli tanks approached and opened fire on the crowd.

According to reports, the injured people were transported to the Red Cross field hospital in the al-Mawasi area.

The IDF earlier did not deny that gunfire was carried out, but said it was unaware of any injuries caused, reported The Times of Israel.

Journalist Ghareeb said the dead and the wounded lay on the ground for a long time before they were rescued.

He told BBC: "Rescue crews could not access the area, which is under Israeli control. This forced residents to use donkey carts to transport victims to the field hospital."

Gaza is the ‘hungriest place on earth’

Meanwhile, starving Gazans continue to be deprived of aid as international relief efforts are being severely constrained by the Israeli authorities, the UN humanitarian affairs coordination office OCHA said on Friday.

“Gaza is the hungriest place on Earth,” OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva, stressing that it is the only defined territory in the world where the entire population is at risk of famine.

“The aid operation that we have ready to roll is being put in an operational straitjacket that makes it one of the most obstructed aid operations, not only in the world today, but in recent history,” he said.

Laerke explained that out of nearly 900 aid trucks that were approved to enter from the Israeli side since the reopening of the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and the war-torn enclave ten days ago, less than 600 have been offloaded on the Gaza side.

An even lower number has been picked up for distribution in Gaza, he said, pointing to the “congested, insecure” routes which humanitarians are assigned to use by the Israeli authorities, as well as “significant delays” in the approvals.