DEADLY AID RUSH
Gazans killed in ‘stampede’ for food
Crowds of Palestinians were killed and injured in the Gaza Strip early Thursday, Hamas-affiliated health officials said — which Israel blamed on a massive stampede of people desperately clamoring for aid.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra claims about 104 people were killed while waiting for aid at the alNabulsi roundabout to the west of Gaza City, though that casualty figure could not be independently verified.
“There were so many dead and wounded that medics were overwhelmed and could not cope with the severity of their injuries,” alQidra said, accusing Israeli troops of opening fire.
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari rejected that narrative, claiming Israeli troops only fired warning shots in an attempt to disperse the mob of “thousands” who rushed the aid trucks and “began violently pushing and trampling other Gazans to death, looting the humanitarian supplies.”
A video posted on social media that Reuters location-verified to the roundabout appeared to show several motionless bodies loaded on trucks. The IDF released drone footage that appeared to show a large mass of people swarming the aid trucks, some of which pushed past the crowd and kept going.
Additional, unverified video showed bloodied victims in a truck and medical personnel treating patients on a hospital floor.
‘Ugly massacre’
“We don’t want aid like this,” a man could be heard saying. “We don’t want aid and bullets together. There are many martyrs.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the incident an “ugly massacre conducted by the Israeli occupation army on people who waited for aid trucks.”
Israeli officials, however, claimed that the bulk of the casualties was from a stampede when the desperate Gazans tried to rush the 38 aid trucks that arrived around 4:40 a.m. Some of the victims were run over by the trucks in the chaos, The Times of Israel reported.
After the crowding, a smaller group approached the IDF troops stationed nearby, which prompted the soldiers to fire warning shots into the air and shoot at the individuals’ legs, the outlet claimed.
An investigation apparently found that the troops hit fewer than 10 Palestinians.