A US-based aid group has said that an Israeli air strike killed four people accompanying its convoy in Gaza the day before, AFP reports.

“An Israeli air strike yesterday killed four Palestinians in the lead vehicle of an Anera aid convoy carrying food and fuel to the Emirati Red Crescent Hospital,” Anera said in a statement.

It identified the dead as “four community members with experience in previous missions and engagement in community security”, noting that they were not Anera staff.

They “stepped forward and requested to take command of the leading vehicle, citing concern that the route was unsafe and at risk of being looted”, the Anera statement said.