Witnesses and Gaza hospital officials say Israeli troops have killed at least 32 Palestinians near aid distribution hubs in the latest deadly violence around people seeking desperately needed food.

Israeli soldiers shot and killed 16 people waiting for humanitarian aid to be distributed in the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian doctors at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Saturday. The 16 Palestinians were waiting near the northern Zikim border crossing for trucks carrying humanitarian aid.

Israel will coordinate airdrops of aid into Gaza from foreign countries in the coming days, an Israeli security official confirmed to ABC News.

Airdrops of food have resumed in Gaza, Israel and the United Arab Emirates said, as deaths from starvation in the besieged enclave spread.

Dr Nick Maynard, a British surgeon who has recently returned from Gaza, said that hospital colleagues first raised the alarm when what appeared to be a “pattern” emerged of “clusters” of similar injuries on the same days from controversial aid distribution sites.