Israel ordered an investigation into possible war crimes over the allegations by some soldiers that it revealed on Friday, the daily said.

At least 549 Palestinians have been killed and 4,066 injured while waiting for food aid distributed at sites run by the Israeli-and United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the Gaza Government Media Office said on Thursday. The GHF has been a source of widespread criticism since its establishment in May.

According to the Haaretz report, which quoted unnamed Israeli soldiers, troops were told to fire at the crowds of Palestinians and use unnecessary lethal force against people who appeared to pose no threat.

“We fired machineguns from tanks and threw grenades,” one soldier told Haaretz, adding, “There was one incident where a group of civilians was hit while advancing under the cover of fog.”

In another instance, a soldier said that where they were stationed in Gaza, between “one and five people were killed every day”.

“It’s a killing field,” that soldier stated.

The Israeli army “strongly rejected” the accusations in the report, according to a military statement published on Telegram.

“Any allegation of a deviation from the law or [military] directives will be thoroughly examined, and further action will be taken as necessary. The allegations of deliberate fire toward civilians presented in the article are not recognized in the field,” it added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz condemned the report, calling it “blood libel” on the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), according to a statement carried by The Times of Israel news outlet.

“The IDF operates under difficult conditions against a terrorist enemy that operates from within the civilian population,” they said, adding, “IDF soldiers receive clear orders to avoid harming innocent civilians, and they act accordingly.”

According to Haaretz, the Military Advocate General has told the army’s General Staff’s Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism, which reviews incidents involving potential violations of the laws of war, to investigate suspected war crimes at these aid sites.

“War crimes” are taking place at GHF aid distribution sites in Gaza, the enclave’s Government Media Office said in a statement, referencing “the shocking confessions” published by Haaretz.

“The report’s direct military orders to fire on unarmed civilians who pose no threat, and the use of heavy machine guns, artillery, and shells against peaceful gatherings waiting for food, are further evidence that the Israeli occupation army is pursuing a systematic policy of genocide under the false guise of ‘relief’,” the statement added.

The GHF operates four sites in Gaza – one in the centre and three in the south – and attacks on aid seekers have only increased since an Israeli blockade was lifted and the Foundation started distributing food at the end of May.

The GHF has come under intense condemnation by aid groups, including the United Nations, for its “weaponisation” of vital items.

“We don’t need a report of that nature to acknowledge that there have been massive violations of international law [in Gaza],” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in response to a question from Al Jazeera about the Haaretz report.

“And when there is a violation of international law, there must be accountability,” he added at a press conference in New York.

Elsewhere on Friday, medical charity Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials, MSF, called the GHF’s aid distribution sites “slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid”.

Since Israel began its war on Gaza in October 2023, at least 56,331 people have been killed, with 132,632 wounded in Israeli attacks, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported.

“The conflict between Israel and Iran has dominated headlines. But we cannot allow the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza to be pushed into the shadows,” Guterres said at a press conference at UN headquarters in New York.

“The ceasefire achieved between Iran and Israel offers hope. And hope is more needed than ever.”

The UN chief emphasized the “horrific” outcome of the Israeli army’s operations in the enclave, adding that “Families have been displaced again and again and are now confined to less than 1/5 of Gaza’s land. And even these shrinking spaces are under threat.”

“Bombs are falling on tents, on families, on those with nowhere left to run. People are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families.”

Calling for immediate action to facilitate humanitarian relief, he said: “The search for food must never be a death sentence. Let me be clear: Israel, as the occupying power, is required to agree to and facilitate humanitarian relief.”

Noting that aid efforts “continue to be strangled,” Guterres recalled the Israeli blockade on “shelter materials and fuel for critical services.”

“Aid workers themselves are starving. This cannot be normalized,” he added, noting that “a trickle of aid is not enough.”

Guterres stressed the need for urgent and practical solutions to ensure aid reaches those in need.

“We need concrete actions so aid can reach all people — swiftly, at scale, wherever they are. Any operation that channels desperate civilians into militarized zones is inherently unsafe. It is killing people,” he said.

“The problem of the distribution of humanitarian aid must be solved. There is no need to reinvent the wheel with dangerous schemes,” the UN chief added.

Guterres said the UN has “the solution – a detailed plan grounded in the humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence,” adding: “We have the supplies. We have the experience.”

“To those in power, I say: enable our operations as international humanitarian law demands. To those with influence, I say: use it,” he continued.

Urging all UN member states to “uphold the UN Charter you recommitted to just yesterday for the 80th anniversary,” Guterres called on all countries to “recognize that the solution to this problem is ultimately political. The only sustainable path to re-establishing hope is by paving the way to the two-state solution.”

“Diplomacy and human dignity for all must prevail,” the UN chief added.

Asked about a report by Haaretz that revealed Israeli soldiers deployed in Gaza have been ordered to open fire on unarmed Palestinian civilians waiting for humanitarian aid, even when no threat was present, Guterres said: “Well, we don’t need the report of that nature to acknowledge that there have been massive violations of international law.”

“And indeed, when there is a violation of international law, there must be accountability,” he affirmed.

Responding to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) accusing the UN of a campaign of misinformation about killings near their food distribution sites, Guterres stated: “We didn’t invent the images everybody has seen.”

“I think it’s close,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked how close his administration is to a deal in terms of a Gaza ceasefire.

“I just spoke with some of the people involved … We think within the next week we’re going to get a ceasefire,” Trump said.

The Israeli daily Haaretz said on Friday nearly 100,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, representing about 4% of the territory’s population.

The death toll contradicts the number of fatalities given by Gaza’s Health Ministry, which stood at over 56,300 since October 2023.

Haaretz added in addition to the high Palestinian deaths from Israeli attacks, many people also died from the indirect effects of the war such as hunger, cold and diseases amid a collapse of the health system in Gaza.

The newspaper noted while Israeli spokespersons, journalists and influencers reject with knee-jerk disgust the death toll announced by Gaza’s Health Ministry as exaggerated, more and more international experts “are stating that not only is this list, with all the horror it embodies, reliable – but that it may even be very conservative in relation to reality.”

It cited a study conducted by Professor Michael Spagat, an economist at Holloway College at the University of London, a world-class expert on mortality in violent conflicts, about deaths in Gaza.

The study surveyed 2,000 households in the Palestinian enclave, comprising almost 10,000 people.

“They concluded that, as of January 2025, some 75,200 people died a violent death in Gaza during the war, the vast majority caused by Israeli munitions,” it said.

According to the survey’s data, 56% of those killed have been either children up to the age of 18 or women.

“That’s an exceptional figure when compared with almost every other conflict since World War II,” Haaretz added.

Spagat stated the survey’s data positions the Gaza war “as one of the bloodiest conflicts of the 21st century.”

“Even if the overall number of war victims in Syria, Ukraine, and Sudan is higher in each case, Gaza is apparently in first place in terms of the ratio of combatants to noncombatants killed, as well as in terms of rate of death relative to population size.”

Data also show that the proportion of women and children killed via a violent death in Gaza is more than double the proportion in almost every other recent conflict, including Kosovo (20%), northern Ethiopia (9%), Syria (20%), and Sudan (23%).

“I think we’re probably at something like 4 percent of the population killed,” Spagat said, adding, “I’m not sure that there’s another case in the 21st century that’s reached that high.”

The Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, despite international calls for a ceasefire.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

He added that a “terrible situation” is going on in Gaza.