Israeli troops opened fire on Palestinians near food distribution hubs in southern Gaza, witnesses and Gaza hospital officials say.

Amid the Israel-Hamas war, the Israeli troops on Saturday opened fire toward crowds of Palestinians seeking food from distribution hubs run by a US-Israeli-backed group and 16 people were killed, PTI quoted witnesses and hospital officials as saying.

Israeli soldiers killed at least 25 people near a distribution centre for humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian medical sources on Saturday. About 70 people were injured by Israeli army gunfire and shelling in the Khan Younis area in the south of the sealed-off coastal region,

Leaders from the Catholic and Greek Orthodox Church visited Gaza’s only Catholic church on Friday, where a day earlier three people were killed in an Israeli strike.

ROME (Reuters) -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Pope Leo on Friday, the Vatican said, a day after an Israeli strike on Gaza's sole Catholic church killed three people and injured several more.