Gaza - Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli forces killed at least 13 Palestinians on Saturday, six of them in a shooting incident near a US-backed aid distribution center in the territory's south.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that at around 7:00 AM (12:00 AM ET), "six people were killed and several others wounded by the forces of the Israeli occupation near the Al-Alam roundabout" in southern Gaza's Rafah area.

Gazans have massed at Al-Alam almost daily since late May to collect humanitarian aid at a center about 0.6 miles away, operated by the controversial US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Samir Abu Hadid, who was there early Saturday, told AFP that thousands of people had gathered near the roundabout.

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"As soon as some people tried to advance towards the aid center, the Israeli occupation forces opened fire from armoured vehicles stationed near the center, firing into the air and then at civilians," Abu Hadid said.

The GHF began operations in late May as Israel partially eased a more than two-month blockade on the Gaza Strip.

The United Nations, which has refused to cooperate with the GHF over neutrality concerns, has warned that Gaza's entire population of more than two million people was at risk of starvation.

In the territory's north early Saturday, Bassal said seven people were killed in an Israeli strike that hit a house near Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the report.