CNN –
Calls for an investigation into one of the worst single tragedies of Israel's war with Hamas are growing after scores of Palestinians were killed in Gaza City on Thursday as they tried to access food aid.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, at least 112 people were killed and 760 injured in an incident in which Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops used live fire as hungry and desperate Palestinian civilians gathered around food aid trucks. CNN cannot independently confirm these figures.
The incident came against a backdrop of great hunger and poverty in the besieged enclave, where food aid was so rare that panic often ensued upon its arrival.
But there are conflicting narratives surrounding the devastation presented by Israel and eyewitnesses on the ground.
The United Nations has said an independent investigation is needed to establish the facts, and nations such as France have backed that call.
Here's what we know.
The deaths came amid chaos on Haroun Al Rasheed Street in western Gaza City, where crowds of hungry Palestinians had gathered for food aid.
According to eyewitnesses, a convoy of at least 18 food trucks arrived around 4:30 a.m. Thursday morning, sent from countries in the region such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Civilians swarmed around the newly arrived aid trucks, hoping to get food and Israeli forces Shooting soon began, witnesses said.
The aid trucks attempted to flee the area, accidentally ramming others and causing more deaths and injuries, the witnesses added to CNN. Ambulances struggled to reach those in need because debris blocked the way, one of those witnesses, Ahmad Abu Al Foul, told CNN.
According to a local journalist in Gaza, Khader Al Za'anoun, most of the deaths occurred because people were rammed by aid trucks trying to escape Israeli fire.
Al Za'anoun, who was at the scene and witnessed the incident, said that while there were large crowds waiting for food distribution from relief trucks, the chaos and confusion that resulted in people being hit by the trucks was first open fire began when Israeli soldiers arrived.
“Most of the people who were killed were rammed by aid trucks during the chaos and while trying to escape Israeli gunfire,” Al Za'anoun said.
Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu/Getty Images
An injured Palestinian receives medical treatment at Al-Shifa Hospital following the incident.
Israel provided a developing account of the incident throughout the day.
In its initial comments, the IDF said the incident began when Palestinians tried to loot the trucks. “Earlier this morning, as humanitarian aid trucks entered the northern Gaza Strip, Gazans surrounded the trucks and looted the delivered aid. “During the incident, dozens of Gaza residents were injured by kicks and trampling,” the IDF told CNN.
Later on Thursday, an Israeli military spokesman claimed in a briefing that there were two separate incidents involving aid trucks in Gaza on Thursday.
First, he said trucks had entered northern Gaza and were overrun by crowds, with trucks running over people. A group of Palestinians then approached Israeli forces, who then opened fire on the Palestinians, he said.
“The truckloads went north, then there was the stampede and after that there was an incident against our forces. “That’s what happened this morning,” the spokesman said.
This timeline directly contradicts eyewitness accounts that the Israeli military opened fire on people near the trucks, causing the drivers to drive away in panic.
In a briefing on Thursday, IDF spokesman Daniel Hargari denied that there was an attack on the convoy. He said Israeli tanks fired warning shots to disperse a crowd around an aid convoy in Gaza after they saw people being trampled.
He insisted that the tanks were “serving to secure the humanitarian corridor” so that the aid convoy could reach its destination.
The IDF released a short video that appears to show a tank driving parallel to the crowd several meters away.
“As you can see in this video, the tanks that were there to secure the convoy see Gazans being trampled and cautiously try to disperse the mob with a few warning shots,” Hagari said.
When the crowd began to grow and “things got out of control,” the tank withdrew so as not to harm Gazans, he added.
“I think as a soldier they safely retreated, risked their own lives and didn't fire on the mob,” he said.
More than half a million people in Gaza are on the brink of famine, United Nations agencies warned on Tuesday, as the war in the enclave has already lasted five months.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said at least 576,000 people across Gaza “are experiencing catastrophic levels of deprivation and hunger.” Meanwhile, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) warned that “real famine is looming by May, with 500,000 people at risk if the threat becomes a reality.”
“Today, almost the entire population of 2.2 million people is dependent on food aid. Gaza has the worst child malnutrition in the world,” WFP Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau told the Security Council during its Tuesday meeting. “One in six children under the age of two is acutely malnourished.”
Help was so scant that when it was available it often caused panic. Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, warned of chaotic scenes around aid trucks in Gaza in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour earlier this week.
“Yes, the chaos around the aid line is getting worse because there is so little help coming in,” he said.
“Today I’m pretty shocked by what I saw,” he continued. “The moment we crossed the border… you see the aid trucks driving down the road at full speed, pursued by gangs of youths who jumped on the trucks and looted mattresses, blankets, food, etc., in front of our eyes to the desperate people outside in need of aid want to get.”
The US State Department expressed condolences for the dead and injured and said the US was pressing Israel for answers.
“Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed over the course of this conflict, not just today but over the last nearly five months,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at a news conference.
“We have been in contact with the Israeli government since this morning and are aware that an investigation is underway,” he said.
Miller said the U.S. was aware of “conflicting reports” about what happened and would only say that the U.S. knew that a commercial convoy not connected to the United Nations delivered the aid.
“If there is anything that the aerial footage of today’s incident makes clear, it is how desperate the situation on the ground is,” Miller said, calling on Israel to “allow additional aid to enter Gaza through as many access points as possible.” and to enable the safe distribution of this aid throughout the Gaza Strip.”
The UN condemned the incident and said it must be investigated. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “appalled” by the rising death toll in Gaza and reiterated calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and the unconditional release of all Israeli hostages in Gaza.
His spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, said in a statement: “The desperate civilians in Gaza urgently need help, including those in the besieged north, where the United Nations has been unable to provide assistance for more than a week.”
Saudi Arabia also condemned the incident and called on the international community to “take a firm stance in requiring Israel to respect international humanitarian law,” while the United Arab Emirates called for an “independent and transparent investigation.”
Colombia announced it would stop buying weapons from Israel following the deaths. “This is called genocide and is reminiscent of the Holocaust, even if world powers don’t like to acknowledge it,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro said in a post.
French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné supported calls for an investigation into the incidents. Speaking to French radio station France Inter, Séjourné described the events as “unjustifiable and unjustifiable.”
The French Foreign Ministry also released a statement on Thursday saying France was waiting for “all light to be shed on the acts mentioned, which are very serious.”
Thursday's tragedy marked one of the deadliest single incidents in Gaza since Israel's war against Hamas began.
And it came at a critical time for the conflict, as negotiations between Israel and Hamas over a deal to halt fighting and allow humanitarian aid to Gaza reached a potentially pivotal moment.
Senior Hamas member Izzat Al-Risheq warned that killing people collecting aid from trucks in Gaza could lead to the collapse of ongoing talks.
“Negotiations are not an open process,” he said in a statement published by Hamas on Telegram.
“We will not allow the negotiations to proceed…”[to become] a cover for the enemy’s continued crimes against our people in the Gaza Strip,” Al-Risheq said.
Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Portal
Israel's war against Hamas has displaced almost the entire population of Gaza.
At the State Department briefing, Miller also said the incident shows the need to reach “a potential temporary ceasefire under a hostage-taking agreement” to allow for more assistance.
“We continue to work day and night to achieve this outcome, including through telephone conversations (President Joe Biden) had this morning with Egyptian President Al Sisi and the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim, as well as a conversation “Secretary Blinken held today with Qatari Prime Minister Al Thani,” Miller said.
“All those responsible for these discussions agreed that this terrible event underscores the urgency of bringing the hostage negotiations to a conclusion.”
President Biden said Monday during an appearance at an ice cream parlor in New York City that he hoped there would be a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict by “next Monday,” even though officials from Israel, Hamas and Qatar were in attendance Negotiations to mediate – distanced themselves from this timeline.
Biden said Thursday “there are two competing versions of what happened” that his administration is investigating. When CNN's Arlette Saenz asked the White House on Thursday whether he feared the deaths would complicate negotiations, Biden replied: “Oh, I know that.” Still, he expressed optimism that a deal on the hostages and a deal would soon be reached possible ceasefire could be achieved.