Credit, Social Networks/Reproduction
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Videos posted on social media showed victims being loaded into empty relief trucks and a donkeydrawn cart.
Item information
- Author: Paul Adams and David Gritten
- Scroll, BBC News in Jerusalem and London
- February 29, 2024
Updated 8 minutes ago
More than 112 Palestinians were reportedly killed as they desperately tried to receive basic aid in the northern Gaza Strip.
Crowds of civilians waiting for help surrounded a convoy of trucks carrying donations after it passed through an Israeli military checkpoint west of Gaza City.
The Israeli military said troops fired warning shots but did not hit the trucks. According to them, many of the dead were trampled or run over.
Hamas rejected the Israeli report, saying there was “indisputable” evidence of “direct fire on citizens.”
At least 112 people were killed and 760 injured in the incident, spokesman for the Hamasrun Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip, Ashraf alQudra, said in a statement on Thursday afternoon (February 29).
The UN Security Council has called an emergency closeddoor meeting to discuss the incident. During the meeting, Algeria the Arab representative on the panel presented a draft statement blaming Israeli forces for “opening fire.”
Although 14 of the 15 council members supported the motion, the United States vetoed it, the AP news agency said, citing Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour. U.S. envoy Robert Wood said the facts of the incident remained unclear.
Previously, US President Joe Biden expressed concern that the incident would complicate efforts to achieve a temporary ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. France said “Israeli soldiers' shooting of civilians trying to get food” was “unjustifiable.”
Hamas has warned that negotiations in Qatar over a new ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages it is holding could now be at risk.
Credit, Israel Defense Forces
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The Israeli military released aerial videos showing hundreds of Palestinians crowded around trucks carrying humanitarian aid
Dramatic aerial photos released by the Israeli military show thousands of people in and around the trucks, while videos of the aftermath posted on social media showed some of the dead being loaded into empty relief trucks and a donkeydrawn cart.
The incident came hours before the local health ministry announced that more than 30,000 people, including 21,000 children and women, had died in Gaza since the conflict began.
According to the ministry, about 7,000 more people were reported missing and 70,450 were treated for injuries in the last four months.
“This is deeply shocking because if we add up the number of injured and the number of missing, we have more than 100,000 people, which is 5% of the population,” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) . , to the BBC.
The UN is also warning of a looming famine in the north of the territory, where around 300,000 people live with little food and drinking water.
The Israeli military launched a largescale air and ground campaign to destroy Hamas considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United Kingdom and others after its gunmen killed around 1,200 people and more in southern Israel on October 7 253 people were taken to Gaza as hostages.
Thursday's incident occurred shortly after 4 a.m. local time as he passed through an Israeli military checkpoint on Rashid Strait, which runs along the Mediterranean coast. Palestinian sources reported that the location was the Nabulsi roundabout in the far southwest of Gaza City.
A convoy of 30 trucks carrying donations from Egypt was heading north along what the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) called a “humanitarian corridor” when it was surrounded by civilians and people got into the vehicles.
“Some began violently pushing and even killing other Gazans and looted humanitarian supplies,” said IDF chief spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. “The unfortunate incident resulted in dozens of people being killed and injured in the Gaza Strip.”
The Israeli tanks, he said, “carefully tried to disperse the crowd with a few warning shots” but retreated “as hundreds became thousands and things got out of control.”
“No IDF attack was carried out against the aid convoy,” he said, emphasizing that the Israeli military tried to help the vehicles reach their destination.
A Palestinian witness speaking to the BBC described panic in the crowd and among riders trying to move forward. Most of the deceased were run over, the witness added.
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Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia said it was receiving dead and injured people from western Gaza City
Dozens of victims in serious condition were taken to alShifa hospital in Gaza City. Doctors said they were unable to cope with the number and severity of cases.
A man in hospital holding the body of his dead friend Tamer Shinbari told the BBC he went to the Nabulsi roundabout in the hope of picking up a bag of flour for his family.
He said Israeli soldiers opened fire “and the aid truck drove over the bodies.”
Authorities said all or most of the victims treated at two other hospitals, Kamal Adwan and alAwda, had gunshot or shrapnel wounds.
“Desperate Civilians”
The IDF said in a statement that “any civilian loss is a tragedy.”
“Despite the very difficult circumstances (caused by Hamas' decision to go to war against Israel), we continue to work to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance to civilians throughout the Gaza Strip,” he added.
“We will learn from this serious incident and try to find better solutions for getting help to those who need it.”
But Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, based in the occupied West Bank, blamed Israeli forces for what they called a “heinous massacre.”
“The deaths of these large numbers of innocent civilian victims who risked their livelihoods are considered an integral part of the genocidal war committed by the occupying government against our people,” Abbas said in a statement, adding that Israel bears “full responsibility.”
A spokesman for UN SecretaryGeneral António Guterres said the organization's leader “condemned” the incident.
“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,” Stephane Dujarric said, adding that Guterres reiterated his call for “immediate humanitarian assistance.” , ceasefire and the unconditional release of all hostages.
The north of the Gaza Strip suffered widespread devastation after being the focus of the first phase of Israel's ground offensive.
The country has been largely isolated from humanitarian aid for several months, despite some efforts by UN aid agencies.
Last week, the World Food Program said it was forced to suspend aid deliveries to the northern Gaza Strip after its first convoy in three weeks was surrounded by crowds of hungry people near the Israeli military checkpoint in Wadi Gaza and then faced gunfire in Gaza City.
Another convoy faced “complete chaos and violence due to the breakdown of civil order.” In central Gaza, several trucks were looted and a driver was beaten.
On Tuesday, a senior U.N. humanitarian official warned that at least 576,000 people across Gaza a quarter of the population were facing catastrophic food insecurity and at risk of famine.
He also warned that one in six children under the age of two in the north suffers from acute malnutrition.
On Wednesday, the Gaza Strip Health Ministry said six children had died of dehydration and malnutrition in hospitals in northern Gaza. Two of the deaths occurred in alShifa and four in Kamal Adwan, he added.