Israeli soldiers shoot dead 104 at aid point
MORE THAN 750 PEOPLE ALSO HURT IN THE INCIDENT
Israeli forces shot dead 104 people when a crowd rushed towards aid trucks yesterday, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said, in one of the worst single incidents of a nearly fivemonth war.
More than 750 people were also hurt in the incident, the ministry said. It came after aid agencies had intensified warnings over Gaza’s humanitarian situation, with famine threatening particularly in Gaza’s north.
Looting of aid trucks had previously occurred in northern Gaza, where residents have taken to eating animal fodder and even leaves to try to stave off hunger.
Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al Qudra said hundreds were killed and wounded from “bullets of the occupation forces that targeted a gathering of citizens” at Gaza City’s Nabulsi roundabout. He called it a “massacre”.
Trucks stormed
A witness told AFP that “thousands of people” had “just stormed the trucks”, which were near army tanks.
“The soldiers fired at the crowd as people came too close to the tanks,” the witness said.
Israeli sources confirmed that troops opened fire at Palestinians rushing toward aid trucks in Gaza, with one saying soldiers thought they “posed a threat” to troops.
A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, however, said many of the dead were crushed by the trucks themselves, after “aid trucks were overwhelmed by people trying to loot”.
The Gaza City shooting adds to a Palestinian death toll from the war which the health ministry earlier Thursday said had topped 30,000. It came after mediators said a truce deal between Israel and Hamas militants could be just days away.
In a reflection of increased concern at the White House, President Joe Biden’s administration is considering air-dropping aid into Gaza, US news site Axios reported yesterday.
Mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been seeking a six-week pause in the war.
Negotiators hope a truce can begin by around March 10 or 11 when the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins, depending on the lunar calendar.
Israeli troops fired on a large crowd of Palestinians racing to pull food off an aid convoy in Gaza City yesterday, witnesses said. More than 100 people were killed, bringing the death toll since the start of the Israel-Hamas war to more than 30,000, health officials said.
Israeli officials acknowledged that troops opened fire, saying the crowd approached in a threatening way.
Kamel Abu Nahel, who was being treated for a gunshot wound at Al Shifa Hospital, said he and others went to the distribution point in the middle of the night because they heard there would be a delivery of food.
“We’ve been eating animal feed for two months,” he said.
He said Israeli troops opened fire on the crowd as people pulled boxes of flour and canned goods off the trucks, causing them to scatter, with some hiding under cars.
After the shooting stopped, people went back to the trucks, and the soldiers opened fire again. He was shot in the leg and fell over, and then a truck ran over his leg as it sped off, he said.
Alaa Abu Daiya, another witness, said Israeli troops open fire and a tank fired a shell.
Donkey carts ferry injured
Medics arriving at the scene found “dozens or hundreds” lying on the ground, according to Fares Afana, the head of the ambulance service at Kamal Adwan Hospital.
He said there were not enough ambulances to collect all the dead and wounded and that some were being brought to hospitals in donkey carts.
Another man in the crowd, who was shot in the arm and leg, said he waited for two hours before someone with a horse-pulled cart had room to take him to Al Shifa.
Another witness told AFP that the violence unfolded when thousands of people desperate for food rushed towards aid trucks at the city’s western Nabulsi roundabout.
The Israeli army initially said that “during the entry of humanitarian aid trucks into the northern Gaza Strip, Gazan residents surrounded the trucks and looted the supplies”.
It added that “during the incident, dozens of Gazans were injured as a result of pushing and trampling. The incident is under review.”
Later an Israeli source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity, that “the crowd approached the forces in a manner that posed a threat to the troops, who responded to the threat with live fire”.
Medics overwhelmed
“Teams are unable to deal with the volume and type of injuries at Al Shifa Medical Complex as a result of weak medical and human capabilities,” an official said.
Health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al Qudra said the toll from the “massacre” in Gaza City “rose to 104 martyrs and 760 injuries due to the bullets of the occupation forces that targeted a gathering of citizens”.
The Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-run government in Gaza, maintains detailed records of casualties. Its counts from previous wars have largely matched those of the UN, independent experts and even Israel’s. Gaza is facing an increasingly desperate humanitarian situation nearly five months into the war started by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7.
According to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, just over 2,300 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip in February, down by around 50 per cent compared to January.
Heated exchange in Geneva
Yesterday’s incident spurred a heated exchange at the Human
Rights Council in Geneva. Palestinian ambassador Ibrahim Mohammad Khraishi confronted his Israeli counterpart on the reported casualties and said: “Are these human shields? Are these Hamas combatants?”
Dr Mohammed Salha, the acting director of the Al Awda Hospital, said the facility received 161 wounded patients, most of whom appeared to have been shot. He said the hospital can only perform the most essential surgeries as it is running out of fuel to power emergency generators.
Alarm over hunger
The increasing alarm over hunger across Gaza has fuelled international calls for another ceasefire, and the US, Egypt and Qatar are working to secure a deal between Israel and Hamas for a pause in fighting and the release of some hostages.
Hopes for a ceasefire
Mediators hope to reach an agreement before Ramadan starts around March 10. But so far, Israel and Hamas have remained far apart in public on their demands.
In a statement condemning yesterday’s attack, Hamas said it would not allow the negotiations “to be a cover for the enemy to continue its crimes.”
Meanwhile, UN officials have warned of further mass casualties if Israel follows through on vows to attack the southernmost city of Rafah , where more than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has taken refuge. They also say a Rafah offensive could decimate what remains of aid operations.
Thousands of Palestinians are believed to have remained in northern Gaza despite Israeli orders to evacuate in October, and many have been reduced to eating animal fodder to survive. The UN says one in 6 children under 2 in the north suffer from acute malnutrition and wasting. “Life is draining out of Gaza at terrifying speed,” the UN humanitarian chief said yesterday.
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