New Delhi: On a day in which at least 104 Palestinians waiting for food aid were killed and 760 wounded after being shot at by Israeli forces in Gaza, according to an Al Jazeera report, US secretary of defence Lloyd Austin told Congress that the United States government placed the death toll of women and children in the ongoing Israeli attack at more than 25,000.During a congressional hearing, reports Reuters, “Austin was asked how many Palestinian women and children had been killed by Israel”. His reply: “It is over 25,000.”The Associated Press spoke to a witness of Thursday’s incident. His name is Kamel Abu Nahel. He was being treated for a gunshot wound at Shifa hospital.He told AP that he and others went to the distribution point in the middle of the night because they heard there would be a delivery of food. “We’ve been eating animal feed for two months,” he told AP.He said Israeli troops opened fire on the crowd, causing it to scatter, with some people hiding under nearby cars. After the shooting stopped, they went back to the trucks, and the soldiers opened fire again. He was shot in the leg and fell over, and then a truck ran over his leg as it sped off, he said.According to AP, these were the first major aid deliveries in a month to Gaza.For weeks, Israel has delayed the entry of aid into Gaza, while Israeli protesters have participated in demonstrations demanding a halt to aid shipments to the territory, despite the worsening conditions of hunger and disease.‘Dozens or hundreds’ lying on the groundFares Afana, the head of the ambulance service at Kamal Adwan hospital, told AP that the medics found “dozens or hundreds” lying on the ground. He said there were not enough ambulances to collect all the dead and wounded and that some were being brought to hospitals in donkey carts.An Israeli government spokesperson referred to the Palestinian casualties during aid distribution near Gaza City as a “tragedy.” He claimed that the deaths were caused by delivery drivers ploughing into a crowd.“At some point the trucks were overwhelmed and the people driving the trucks, which were Gazan civilian drivers, ploughed into the crowds of people, ultimately killing, my understanding is, tens of people,” Al Jazeera reported the spokesperson, Avi Hyman, as saying.“It’s obviously a tragedy but we’re not sure of the specifics quite yet.”Eating animal feedA few days ago, several citizens told Al Jazeera that they have been eating only once every two days and consuming food intended for animals, such as bird and donkey feed, out of desperation. On February 27, a toddler died after eating bread made from animal feed, which poisoned him.The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has warned that half a million people in Gaza face starvation and all 2.3 million experience acute food shortage.‘Our blood is very cheap’“Unfortunately, our blood is very cheap,” Yusri al-Ghoul, a displaced Palestinian novelist, lecturer and doctor, told Al Jazeera.He said that he was in the area during the attack by Israeli forces on Palestinians trying to get aid in Gaza.“Every day we go to that place which is close to the Israeli tanks because we are starving; we don’t find food, even the food of animals for about two months, and our children are starving,” he told Al Jazeera.“What happened today [in the] morning … I went to that area like thousands of Palestinians to get the aid, but unfortunately we come back with martyrs, with innocents who were killed by the Israeli tanks and snipers,” al-Ghoul said. “They sniped in front of me tens of Palestinians … they targeted their heads, elbows and knees.”