Sixteen Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military in Gaza on Friday, according to local health authorities, as a U.S.- and Israeli-backed group said it had handed out aid in the enclave after earlier saying that its distribution sites were closed.

Palestinian health officials and witnesses say Israeli forces fired on people as they headed toward an aid distribution site Tuesday, killing at least 27, in the third such incident in three days.

CAIRO/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -At least 27 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded by Israeli fire near a food distribution site in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, local health authorities said, in the latest bout of chaos and bloodshed to plague the aid operation.