Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has voiced deep concern over the killing of more than 100 Palestinians near US-backed aid sites in Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.

“Can you imagine someone who is so desperate for food that they are making this trek over a long distance, and the fear that they must have – that they could even be shot or that they may even come back with no food?” Laurence told Al Jazeera.

“They’re at the risk of starvation. As the high commissioner [Volker Turk] says, it’s unconscionable.”

Laurence said attacks directed against civilians “constitute a grave breach of international law”.

“That is a war crime,” he said, adding that wilfully impeding access to food or other life-sustaining supplies for civilians “may also constitute a war crime”.