Three die in overcrowding outside Gaza bakery amid food shortage

Palestinians gather to get food at a distribution centre in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip. Picture: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP

Two children and a woman were crushed to death as a crowd of Palestinians pushed to get bread at a bakery in the Gaza Strip amid a worsening food crisis in the war-ravaged territory, medical officials said.

The children and the 50-year-old were taken to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, where a doctor confirmed that they died from suffocation due to crowding at the al-Banna bakery on Friday.