Israeli strikes and gunfire has killed at least 46 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, most of them among crowds seeking food.

Many of the more than 30 people killed overnight were killed while seeking humanitarian aid, according to hospitals that treated dozens of wounded people.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on any of the strikes, but says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the group’s militants operate in densely populated areas.

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The deaths came as the UK announced it would recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel agreed to a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, following a similar declaration by France’s president.

Israel’s foreign ministry said it rejected the British statement.

The Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said it received 12 people who were killed on Tuesday night when Israeli forces opened fire towards crowds awaiting aid trucks coming from the Zikim crossing in northwestern Gaza.

Thirteen others were killed in strikes in the Jabaliya refugee camp, and the northern towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, the hospital said.

In the southern city of Khan Younis, the Nasser hospital said it received the bodies of 16 people who it says were killed on Tuesday evening while waiting for aid trucks close to the newly built Morag corridor, which separates Khan Younis from the southernmost city of Rafah.

The hospital received another body for a man killed in a strike on a tent in Khan Younis, it said.

The Awda hospital in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp said it received the bodies of four Palestinians who it says were killed on Wednesday by Israeli fire close to an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the Netzarim corridor area, south of the Wadi Gaza.

In addition, seven Palestinians, including a child, had died of malnutrition-related causes in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, the territory’s health ministry said on Wednesday.

A total of 89 children have died of malnutrition since the war began in Gaza.

The ministry said 65 Palestinian adults had also died of malnutrition-related causes across Gaza since late June, when it started counting deaths among adults.

The current escalation in the region’s conflict began when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and killed approximately 1200 people and abducted 251 others.

They still hold 50 hostages, though Israel believes that more than half the remaining hostages are dead.

Most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.