According to Hamas, at least 110 people died while distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza on Thursday. The organization of this distribution was part of an experiment approved by the Israeli War Cabinet on Monday.
Published on March 1, 2024 6:12 p.m
Reading time: 3 minutes
Palestinians on their way to Gaza for humanitarian aid, March 1, 2024. (AFP)
On the one hand, we talk about an “incident”, a “dramatic rush”: this is the Israeli version. On the other hand, a massacre that now has a name in Gaza: “the massacre of the flour and starving people”. According to Hamas, many questions are emerging the day after the deaths of at least 110 people in Gaza during a humanitarian aid distribution on Thursday, February 29.
Israel acknowledged that Israeli soldiers had “fired on a limited scale” because they felt “threatened” and also mentioned “a stampede in which dozens of residents were killed and injured, some run over by aid trucks.” However, a new element is causing a new controversy: this humanitarian convoy was organized by the Israeli army without consultation with the UN or local authorities. This is an experiment, a pilot project, approved by the Israeli War Cabinet last Monday.
An experiment without consultation
The principle of this experiment is simple: once the trucks arrive in Gaza, they change drivers and local companies are then responsible for transporting aid to the north. They are escorted at night by the Israeli army along clearly defined routes and humanitarian corridors. The aim is to prevent the diversion of aid funds to Hamas and, above all, to prevent looting.
As of early Thursday morning, the convoy consisted of 38 trucks driven by Palestinians and secured by the Israeli army. The Israeli army spokesman said without further details that this convoy, which entered Gaza from the Rafah terminal on the Egyptian border, was chartered by “private companies.” He passed the coastal road. It was the fifth since the introduction of this new system. The Army says the first four convoys crossed the area without incident.
Errors identified by the UN
The head of the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, emphasized on X (ex-Twitter) that “neither UNRWA nor any other UN agency was involved in this distribution.”
For weeks, the UN Humanitarian Aid Coordination in Jerusalem has been trying to negotiate night crossings to the north with the Israeli army in order to avoid being stopped on the street by hungry residents or organized groups. “Night crossings were one of the proposals we put on the table because this was the only way to limit the number of people,” explains Andrea De Domenico, head of Ocha (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), the UN office for the humanitarian affairs Coordination of humanitarian affairs. But “it was complicated, we had no guarantees about the dam opening at night,” then “suddenly they tried the private sector. “It’s just that they didn’t take everything into account,” he continues.
Another day from hell.#Gaza reached an unprecedented death toll of 30,000 Palestinians killed, while another 100 people were reportedly killed and 700 injured as they desperately tried to receive life-saving humanitarian aid from a convoy.
Neither @UNRWA any more…
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) February 29, 2024
According to the images and testimonies collected by the UN services, there was an accumulation of errors on Thursday, undoubtedly related to inexperience on the ground. The drivers lacked the right reflexes and the convoy was too long, says Andrea De Domenico: “The convoy tried to speed through the crowd and after the trucks were stopped, the last part of the convoy was very close to the dam.” And then the crowd was shot at because they got too close to the dam.
For months, the United Nations has complained about the restrictions imposed by the army on these convoys. The Israeli alternative solution leads to this catastrophe. The UN hopes to return to the north, even if this affair complicates the situation on the ground. For its part, the Israeli army says it is considering other methods of distributing humanitarian aid, by air, for example via Jordan, or by opening a new entry point in Gaza.