Deir al-Balah (Gaza Strip), Aug. 24 (LaPresse/AP) – Israeli forces shot and killed four Palestinians who were seeking aid and crossing a military area south of Gaza City, regularly used to reach a food distribution point, according to witnesses speaking to Associated Press. Gaza City is suffering from famine after 22 months of war, while the Israeli army continues its planned offensive to capture the city, possibly within days. The Israeli Defense Minister has warned that the city, home to hundreds of thousands of people, could be destroyed. Al-Awda Hospital and two witnesses told the Associated Press that the Palestinians were killed when troops opened fire on a crowd heading to a site managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US-based organization backed by Israel, near the Netzarim corridor, hundreds of meters from the distribution point. "The gunfire was indiscriminate," said Mohamed Abed, a father of two from the Bureij refugee camp. Abed and Aymed Sayyad, another aid seeker, said troops opened fire when a group at the front of the crowd surged toward the site before its planned opening. Sayyad claimed to have assisted two people wounded by gunfire. "This incident did not occur near our site nor as described," stated GHF in an email. The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.