Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli fire killed at least 22 people on Sunday near a United States-backed aid distribution center in the southern city of Rafah, revising an earlier death toll.

“The number of martyrs from the massacre at the American aid center in Rafah has risen to at least 22, with more than 120 wounded, including children,” civil defense spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The casualties were taken to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, he said.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is administered by contracted US security with support from Israeli troops, began distributing food in the Gaza Strip on 26 May.

The United Nations and other major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the organization, saying it violated basic humanitarian principles, and appeared crafted to cater to Israeli military objectives.

Officially a private effort, GHF said it had distributed 2.1 million meals as of Friday.

In a statement on Sunday, Hamas accused Israeli forces operating in Rafah of committing “a new massacre against hungry civilians who had gathered at the so-called ‘humanitarian aid’ distribution sites,” calling them “mass death traps, not humanitarian relief points.”

Truce talks

The Palestinian militant group said Saturday that it had responded positively to a US-backed ceasefire proposal, but Washington’s main negotiator criticized Hamas’ reply as “totally unacceptable.”

Hamas said it had emphasized the need for a permanent ceasefire — long a sticking point for Israel.

And a source within the Palestinian group’s political bureau added that it had also pushed for a “full Israeli withdrawal” from the Gaza Strip.

On Friday, Israel had warned Hamas to either accept the deal and free the hostages held in Gaza “or be annihilated.”

US envoy Steve Witkoff called Hamas’ response to its truce offer on Saturday “totally unacceptable” and urged it to “accept the framework proposal we put forward.”

“That is the only way we can close a 60-day ceasefire deal in the coming days in which half of the living hostages and half of those who are deceased will come home to their families and in which we can have... substantive negotiations in good-faith to try to reach a permanent ceasefire,” he added in a post on X.

Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas’ 7 October 2023 attack, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Saturday that at least 4,117 people have been killed in the territory since Israel resumed its offensive on 18 March taking the war’s overall toll to 54,381, mostly civilians.

Hamas’ attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.