At least 20 people were killed in a chaotic crush at an aid center in Gaza, with the territory's civil defense agency attributing the panic to Israeli gunfire.

Twenty Palestinians were killed Wednesday in the crush of a crowd at a food distribution site run by an Israeli-backed American organization in the Gaza Strip, the group said, the first time it has acknowledged deadly violence at its operations.

There were conflicting accounts from Palestinian and aid officials over what happened at the food distribution hub run by the Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.