A mass food poisoning at a camp for displaced people near the northern city of Mosul has killed at least two and sickened hundreds, Iraq's health minister said on Tuesday.

Adila Hamoud, the minister, told The Associated Press in Baghdad that 752 people took ill after a meal the previous evening at the Hassan Sham U2 camp, located about 13 miles east of Mosul.

The food, provided by a non-governmental organization, was meant for an iftar, a meal with which Muslims break their dawn-to-dusk fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. Hamoud said a woman and a girl died while at least 300 people remain in critical condition.

She would not speculate whether the poisoning might have been intentional.

A formal investigation was launched into the incident by authorities, said lawmaker Raad al-Dahlaki, who chairs the Parliament's immigration and displacement committee. Al-Dahlaki, who visited the camp overnight, said the meal contained rice, a bean sauce, meat, yoghurt and water. He put the number of sickened people at 850.

The camp houses thousands who have fled their homes in and around Mosul after a U.S.-backed Iraqi offensive was launched to dislodge the Islamic State group from the city last October. According to the U.N. refugee agency, it houses 6,235 individuals.