GAZA - At least 46 Palestinians were killed in Israeli gunfire and shelling across the Gaza Strip on Saturday, including 27 near an aid distribution center, said the civil defense in Gaza.

Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told Xinhua that 27 Palestinians were killed, and 180 others were injured by Israeli army fire while waiting for food near a US- and Israeli-backed aid distribution center north of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) denied the claims, saying in a statement that a review found no known injured individuals from IDF fire adjacent to the aid distribution site.

"The IDF continues to operate in order to facilitate the distribution of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip and to enable passage to the distribution sites via designated and secure routes," it said.

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In the northern city of Gaza City, 10 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes, eight of them women and children.

In the central Gaza Strip town of Deir al-Balah, at least seven people were killed in airstrikes.

Ambulance crews also recovered the bodies of two people killed in an Israeli bombardment from the Sheikh Nasser area of Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip, said Basal.

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The IDF said in a statement on Saturday that it had struck about 250 "terror targets" in the Gaza Strip over the past 48 hours, including "terrorists" and their infrastructure sites.

On March 18, Israel resumed its military operations in the enclave. At least 7,311 Palestinians have been killed and 26,054 others injured since Israel renewed its intensive strikes, bringing the total death toll since October 2023 to 57,882, and injuries to 138,095, Gaza-based health authorities said on Saturday.