The war between Hamas and IsraelDossierIDF soldiers fired live ammunition at Palestinians rushing towards trucks carrying humanitarian aid in Gaza this Thursday, February 29th. Israeli sources who confirmed the shooting said the soldiers felt “threatened.” Washington demanded “answers” from Israel.
The distribution of humanitarian aid to refugees in the Gaza Strip has fallen into chaos. This Thursday, February 29, Israeli army fire killed at least 110 Palestinians who were rushing toward trucks carrying humanitarian aid in Gaza, Hamas said, condemning a “massacre.” Israeli sources confirmed these live shots later in the day and said that the soldiers felt “threatened.” While the Tsahal denied the army's responsibility for the toll, it also mentioned on X “dozens of dead and injured because they were trampled or crushed by trucks.”
The US demanded “answers” from Israel in the evening after the deaths of more than 110 people, according to Hamas, during an aid distribution in Gaza that descended into chaos, with Washington citing a “desperate” situation. “We are urgently seeking additional information about exactly what happened,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, who offered condolences to those killed, told reporters. “We have been in contact with the Israeli government since this morning and are aware that an investigation is underway. We will closely monitor this investigation and push for answers,” he added.
The spokesman for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Stéphane Dujarric, “condemned” the events. “We don’t know exactly what happened. But whether these people were killed by Israeli fire, whether they were crushed by crowds or run over by trucks, these are in some way acts of violence that are linked to this conflict,” he explained, specifying that there was no UN presence during this aid distribution.
After nearly five months of war between Israel and the Islamist movement, the United Nations estimates that 2.2 million people, the vast majority of the population, are at risk of famine in the Israeli-besieged Gaza Strip. This dramatic situation is particularly concentrated in the north, where destruction, fighting and looting make the delivery of humanitarian aid almost impossible. Hamas' health ministry announced on Thursday a death toll of 104 and another 760 injured.
Witnesses told AFP of scenes of thousands of people rushing towards aid trucks at a roundabout in western Gaza. While the mediating countries hoped for a ceasefire before the start of Ramadan, which begins on the evening of March 10 or 11, they reported no concrete progress. “This horrific violence and suffering must end. Ceasefire,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X.
“Famine is imminent”
Across the Gaza Strip, civilians are caught up in daily fighting and bombardment that has spared no area, devastated entire neighborhoods and forced thousands of families to flee. “We haven't eaten bread for two months. “Our children are starving,” Muhammad Yassin, a 35-year-old man from Zeitun in the north, told AFP. He went out early in the morning to buy flour and found “thousands of people waiting for hours to get one.” two kilos of flour. According to the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), humanitarian needs are “unlimited”. “There is a threat of famine. Hospitals have turned into battlefields. One million children face trauma every day,” UNRWA said.
According to the Israeli army, fighting continues in the north in Zeitun, a district of Gaza City, as well as in the center of the territory and in Khan Younes in the south of the Palestinian enclave. As the fighting spread, hundreds of thousands of displaced people were pushed further south and reached Rafah, a city on the closed border with Egypt.
Nearly a million and a half Palestinians, according to the UN, are now gathered with no means of escape in this daily bombed city, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to launch an offensive to defeat Hamas in its “last bastion”. Despite repeated international warnings, Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that a ceasefire would only “delay” such an offensive.
According to a Hamas source, Qatar, the United States and Egypt are trying to reach an agreement on a six-week ceasefire in which one hostage, including women, minors and sick elderly people, will be exchanged daily for 10 Palestinians detained by Israel. On Monday, US President Joe Biden spoke of “an agreement by the Israelis not to engage in operations during Ramadan” to “get all the hostages out.” But Hamas is particularly calling for a final ceasefire before an agreement on the release of the hostages, as well as the lifting of the Israeli blockade imposed on Gaza since 2007 and the provision of increased humanitarian aid.
To update : at 7:10 p.m. with the reaction of the spokesman for the UN Secretary General.
To update : at 8:42 p.m. with the US response.