Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces opened fire on Sunday on a crowd of Palestinians waiting to collect humanitarian aid, providing a preliminary toll of at least 44 people killed. The latest deaths came as Pope Leo XIV slammed the "barbarity" of the war in Gaza in his traditional Sunday blessing.

Local hospitals in the Gaza Strip say that Israeli strikes across the territory overnight killed at least 31 people.

Israeli forces killed at least 22 people in attacks in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including two people who died in a strike on a church that late Pope Francis used to speak to regularly, medics and church officials said.