U.S.-backed aid group denies that 31 Palestinians were killed on their way to get food in Rafah

Officials with the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip said that 31 Palestinians were shot dead Sunday on their way to get food from an aid distribution site. But the U.S.-backed charity helping to deliver that aid vehemently denied those claims.

The conflicting accounts about what actually took place in the city of Rafah underscore the difficulty in getting accurate information out of the Gaza Strip, which has been the site of an intense Israeli military operation since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on the Jewish state. Hamas has been the governing body of Gaza since 2007.