DEIR al-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes killed 15 Palestinians in Gaza early Friday, while a hospital said another 20 people died in shootings while seeking aid.

Meanwhile, the U.N. human rights office says it has recorded 613 Palestinians killed within the span of a month in Gaza while trying to obtain aid. Most were killed while trying to reach food distribution points run by an Israeli-backed American organization, while others were massed waiting for aid trucks connected to the United Nations or other humanitarian organizations, it said.

Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said the rights office was not able to attribute responsibility for the killings. But she said “it is clear that the Israeli military has shelled and shot at Palestinians trying to reach the distribution points” operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

In a message to The Associated Press, Shamdasani said that of the total tallied, 509 killings were “GHF-related,” meaning at or near its distribution sites.

“Information keeps coming in,” she added. “This is ongoing and it is unacceptable.”

The GHF has denied any serious injuries or deaths on its sites and says shootings outside their immediate vicinity are under the purview of Israel’s military. In a statement Friday, GHF cast doubt on the casualty figures and accused the U.N. of trying “to falsely smear our effort.” The army says it fires warnings shots as a crowd control measure or opens fire if its troops are threatened.

The Israeli military also issued new evacuation orders Friday in northeast Khan Younis in southern Gaza and urged Palestinians to move west ahead of planned military operations against Hamas in the area. The new evacuation zones pushed Palestinians into increasingly smaller spaces by the coast.

20 killed Friday while seeking aid

Since GHF began distributions in late May, witnesses have said almost daily that Israeli troops open fire toward crowds of Palestinians on the roads leading to the food centers. To reach the sites, people must walk several kilometers (miles) through an Israeli military zone where troops control the road.

Officials at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said at least three Palestinians were killed Friday on the way to GHF sites in the area of Rafah in southern Gaza.

On Friday, in reaction to the U.N. report, the Israeli military said it was investigating reports of people killed and wounded while seeking aid and that it had given instructions to troops in the field based on “lessons learned” from reviewing the incidents. It said it was working at “minimizing possible friction between the population” and Israeli forces, including by installing fences and placing signs on the routes.

Separately, witnesses have said Israeli troops open fire on crowds of Palestinians who gather in military-controlled zones to wait for aid trucks entering Gaza for the U.N. or other aid organizations not associated with GHF. The crowds are usually made up of people desperate for food who grab supplies off the passing trucks, and armed gangs have also looted trucks.

On Friday, 17 people were killed waiting for trucks in eastern Khan Younis in the Tahliya area, officials at Nasser Hospital said.

Three survivors told the AP they had gone to wait for the trucks in a military “red zone” in Khan Younis and that troops opened fire from a tank and drones.

It was a “crowd of people, may God help them, who want to eat and live,” said Seddiq Abu Farhana, who was shot in the leg, forcing him to drop a bag of flour he had grabbed. “There was direct firing.”

Airstrikes also hit the Muwasi area on the southern end of Gaza’s Mediterranean coast, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians driven from their homes are sheltering in tent camps. Of the 15 people killed in the strikes, eight were women and one was a child, according to the hospital.

Israel’s military said it was looking into Friday’s reported airstrikes. It had no immediate comment on the reported shootings surrounding the aid trucks.

U.N. investigates shootings near aid sites

In its statement reacting to the U.N. rights office report, GHF accused the U.N. of taking its casualty figures “directly from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry” and of “promoting Hamas’ false propaganda.”

Shamdasani, the U.N. rights office spokesperson, told the AP that the data “is based on our own information gathering through various reliable sources, including medical, human rights and humanitarian organizations.”

Rik Peeperkorn, representative of the World Health Organization, said Nasser Hospital, the biggest hospital operating in the south, receives dozens or hundreds of casualties every day, most coming from the vicinity of the food distribution sites. The overwhelmed hospital has become “one massive trauma ward,” he said. The WHO supports Nasser Hospital and other health facilities.

The International Committee of the Red Cross also said in late June that its field hospital near one of the GHF sites has been overwhelmed more than 20 times in the previous months by mass casualties. It said the casualties had been on their way to the food distribution sites, and “the vast majority of patients suffered gunshot injuries.”

Also on Friday, Israel’s military said two soldiers were killed in combat in the north of Gaza and it was investigating. Over 860 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the war began, including more than 400 during the fighting in Gaza.

Efforts ongoing to halt to war

The recent killings took place as efforts to halt the 21-month war appeared to be moving forward.

“We’ll see what happens. We’re going to know over the next 24 hours,” U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One late Thursday when asked if Hamas had agreed to the latest framework for a ceasefire.

Hamas said Friday that it was holding discussions with leaders of other Palestinian factions to discuss a ceasefire proposal presented to it by Egyptian and Qatari mediators. Hamas said it will give its final response to mediators after the discussions have concluded.

Trump said Tuesday that Israel had agreed on terms for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza and urged Hamas to accept the deal before conditions worsen.

The Health Ministry in Gaza said the number of Palestinians killed in the territory has passed 57,000. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says more than half of the dead are women and children. The ministry is run by medical professionals employed by the Hamas government, and its numbers are widely cited by the U.N. and international organizations.

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking roughly 250 hostages.

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Kullab reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten reported from Geneva and AP writer Julia Frankel contributed.