Israeli troops fire on crowd seeking food from aid convoy
Israeli troops fired on a large crowd of Palestinians racing to pull food off an aid convoy in Gaza City on Thursday, witnesses said. More than 100 people were killed in the chaos, bringing the death toll since the start of the Israel-Hamas war to more than 30,000, according to health officials.
The violence was quickly condemned by Arab countries, and U.S. President Joe Biden expressed concern it would add to the difficulty of negotiating a ceasefire in the nearly five-month conflict.
The Gaza City area was among the first targets of Israel’s air, sea and ground offensive, launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel.
While many Palestinians fled the invasion in the north of the enclave, a few hundred thousand are believed to remain in the largely devastated and isolated region. Trucks carrying food reached northern Gaza this week, the first major aid delivery there in a month, officials said.
Aid groups say it has become nearly impossible to deliver supplies in most of Gaza because of the difficulty of co-ordinating with the Israeli military, ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of public order, with crowds of desperate people overwhelming aid convoys. The United Nations says a quarter of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians face starvation; around 80 per cent have fled their homes.
Israeli officials acknowledged their troops opened fire on the Gaza City crowd Thursday, saying they did so after the crowd approached in a threatening way. The officials insisted on anonymity to give details about what happened, after the Israeli military said in a statement that “dozens were killed and injured from pushing, trampling and being run over by the trucks.”
Kamel Abu Nahel, who was being treated for a gunshot wound at 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.
At least 112 people were killed, Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said. The Health Ministry described it as a “massacre.”
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan accused Israel of targeting civilians in the incident. In separate statements, they called for increased safe passages for humanitarian aid. They also urged the international community to take decisive action to pressure Israel to abide by international law and to reach an agreement for an immediate ceasefire.