World leaders have called for an investigation and a ceasefire nearly five months into the Gaza conflict after dozens of desperate Palestinians were killed rushing an aid convoy, AFP reports.

Vowing to “do more” to address the worsening humanitarian situation, President Joe Biden said Friday that the United States would start delivering relief supplies into Gaza via airdrops — as some of its allies have already — in a bid to get aid into hard-to-reach areas.

An Israeli source acknowledged troops had opened fire on the crowd, believing it “posed a threat”. Gaza’s health ministry called it a “massacre”, and said 115 people were killed and more than 750 wounded.

A UN team that visited some of the wounded in Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital on Friday saw a “large number of gunshot wounds”, UN chief Antonio Guterres’s spokesman said.

The hospital received 70 of the dead and treated more than 700 wounded, of whom around 200 were still there during the team’s visit, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

“I’m not aware that our team examined the bodies of people who were killed. My understanding from what they saw in terms of the patients who were alive getting treatments is that there was a large number of gunshot wounds,” he said.