Israel has been accused by aid agencies of pushing Gaza towards famine by weaponising food in its war against Hamas – an allegation it denies.

Israel has said there is “no starvation” and it is not imposing restrictions on aid entering Gaza – claims rejected by its close allies in Europe, the UN and other agencies active in the Strip.

On Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was “continuing the series of actions aimed at improving the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip”.

It said that 90 aid packages containing food for residents in southern and northern Gaza had been airdropped in the past few hours as part of co-operation between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, France and Germany.

Meanwhile, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said seven more people, including a child, died of malnutrition in the territory on Saturday.

The health ministry said the total number of malnutrition deaths since the start of the war has reached 169, including 93 children.

Also on Saturday in Gaza, the health ministry said at least 83 had been killed and 1,079 injured as a result of Israel’s military offensive in the past 24 hours.

Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat told the BBC it had received the bodies of three people killed by Israeli forces near an aid distribution point on Salah al-Din street, south of the Wadi Gaza area in central Gaza, run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The hospital said at least 36 people were injured.

The IDF said its troops “fired warning shots” hundreds of metres away from the aid distribution site, and not during its operating hours, after a crowd did not comply with their calls not to advance towards them “in a manner that posed a threat”.

“The IDF is not aware of any casualties as a result of the warning shots, and the details of the incident are still being examined,” it said.

GHF said there was “nothing at or near our sites today”.

International journalists, including the BBC, are blocked by Israel from entering Gaza independently, making it difficult to verify claims.