Desperate residents are attacked by the Israelis as they try to get flour for their families as famine strikes the Strip.
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed and more than 200 others injured after Israeli troops opened fire on hundreds waiting for food aid southwest of Gaza City as the besieged enclave faces an unprecedented hunger crisis.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the alleged cold-blooded “massacre,” reporting that at least 70 Palestinians were killed and 250 injured.
The ministry said the attack was part of Israel's ongoing “genocidal war.” It called on the international community to “intervene urgently” to bring about a ceasefire as “the only way to protect the civilian population”.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates // Condemns the massacre in Nablsi Square in Gaza and calls for an immediate ceasefire as the only means of protecting civilians.#Gaza_under_attack#CeasefireNow#Palestine#Israeli war crimes pic.twitter.com/AaoEtAofMC
— State of Palestine – MFA 🇵🇸🇵🇸 (@pmofa) February 29, 2024
Citizens had gathered on Al-Rashid Street, where relief trucks were believed to be carrying flour. Al Jazeera confirmed footage showing the bodies of dozens of killed and wounded Palestinians being transported on trucks as ambulances could not reach the area.
“We went to get flour. The Israeli army shot at us. There are many martyrs on the ground and until this moment we are withdrawing them. There is no first aid,” said a witness.
Al Jazeera's Ismail al-Ghoul reported from the scene that Israeli tanks advanced after opening fire, running over many of the dead and injured. “It is a massacre, on top of the famine that threatens the citizens of Gaza,” he said.
The dead and wounded were taken to four medical centers: al-Shifa, Kamal Adwan, Al Ahli and the Jordanian hospitals. Ambulances could not reach the area because the roads were “totally destroyed,” al-Ghoul said.
“The numbers will increase. Hospitals are no longer able to accommodate the large number of patients because they lack fuel and certainly not medicine. The hospitals have also run out of blood.”
'Beyond Words'
A Palestinian told the Quds News Network that the military attack was a “crime.”
“I've been waiting since yesterday. The trucks started coming through around 4:30 this morning. As we approached the relief trucks, the Israeli tanks and fighter jets began firing at us as if it were a trap.
“To the Arab states I say: If you want us to be killed, why are you sending aid? If this continues, we will no longer want to receive any help at all. Every coming convoy means another massacre.”
Jadallah Al-Shafei, the head of the nursing department at Al-Shifa Hospital, said that “the situation is indescribable,” adding that “the hospital was flooded with dozens of corpses and hundreds of injured people.”
“The majority of the victims suffered gunshots and shrapnel in the head and upper body. They were hit by direct artillery fire, drone missiles and gunfire,” he told Al Jazeera.
Systematic attacks
The mass shooting was the latest case of systematic attacks on hungry people waiting for leftover food. In recent days, Palestinians waiting in large groups for aid trucks on the Salah al-Din road near Gaza City have come under fire from Israeli forces, said Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud, speaking from Rafah in the south Enclave reported.
Recently, a truck that was supposed to deliver aid to the people of Gaza tragically turned into a truck carrying the injured and killed, he added.
Since aid organizations have been unable to deliver supplies to the north of the Gaza Strip since January 23, many are making a long trek south on foot.
famine
On Wednesday, Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Program (WFP), told the United Nations Security Council that more than 500,000 people, including two, are considered acutely malnourished.
Almost every family in #Gaza needs food aid to survive.
Yesterday the deputy head of the WFP @CarlSkau warned the Security Council of impending famine in northern Gaza unless conditions change.
🔗Read his full remarks: https://t.co/VnP20iPqEl pic.twitter.com/ZhFUyNIQv7
— World Food Program (@WFP) February 28, 2024
“The threat of famine is exacerbated by the inability to bring essential food supplies to Gaza in sufficient quantities and the almost impossible working conditions of our staff on the ground,” he said.
He described dangerous conditions for WFP trucks trying to bring food to the north earlier this month. “There were delays at checkpoints; they faced gunfire and other violence; Food was plundered along the way; and at their destination they were overwhelmed by desperately hungry people,” Skau said.
Aid groups claim Israel has delayed deliveries. Israel denies this accusation. It submitted a report to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the measures taken to avert suffering in the besieged enclave. Human rights groups say Israel violated the International Court of Justice order issued in January.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, said on social media on Sunday that calls to allow food distribution in Gaza amid ongoing hostilities between Israel and Hamas had been rejected or “on “fell on deaf ears”.
The UN official warned of an “imminent famine” and said the situation was becoming a “man-made disaster”.
After a Hamas-led attack on October 7, Israel launched a deadly offensive in the Gaza Strip. More than 30,000 people have reportedly been killed so far, mostly women and children.