Israel's military said on Tuesday that it had expanded its operations in Gaza, where residents reported fierce gunfire and shelling days ahead of a planned trip to Washington by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The intensified operations came after days of mounting calls for a ceasefire, with US President Donald Trump - whom Netanyahu is slated to meet with next week - among those urging Israel to strike a new deal to halt the war and bring home the captives still held in Gaza.
Israeli forces killed scores of Palestinians seeking aid at several humanitarian relief points, including near Rafah and the Netzarim corridor.
This marks the latest incident of such a kind at an aid distribution point run by the Israeli-US-owned Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has been accused of being a "death trap" for desperate Palestinians searching for aid.
Since starting its operations in the Gaza Strip, almost 600 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, with over 4,000 people injured.
More than 170 aid organisations called for an end to the US- and Israeli-backed aid distribution scheme, which they said forced starving civilians to "trek for hours through dangerous terrain and active conflict zones, only to face a violent, chaotic race" for food.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that a truce in the war-battered territory could be happen " sometime next week".
"We hope it's going to happen, and we're looking for it to happen sometime next week," Trump responded as he departed Washington for Florida.