IRIA News

Gaza health authorities said Israeli forces shot dead more than 110 Palestinians on February 29, 2024, as they waited in lines to get flour for their families amid an unprecedented hunger crisis in the besieged city. More than 800 people were wounded as a result of the Israeli massacre.

Scores of Palestinians have been killed in what Gaza’s Government Media Office describes as a “horrific massacre” after Israeli troops shelled hundreds of Palestinians awaiting humanitarian aid in Al Rasheed Street, south of the city.

Israel’s military, however, denied shooting the aid seekers and said that Israeli tanks only fired warning shots but did not strike the lorries, adding that the deaths and injuries were caused by the stampede when several people were trampled or run over.

Health workers and government officials in Gaza rejected Israel’s account, saying there was “undeniable” evidence of “direct firing at citizens”.

The United Nations Security Council scheduled a closed-door emergency meeting to discuss the incident, during which Algeria put forward a draft statement blaming Israeli forces for “opening fire”.

While 14 of the 15 United Nations Security Council members supported the resolution, the United States blocked it, providing yet another clean chit to Israeli forces for their war crimes in the Gaza Strip. The U.S. envoy to the United Nations, Robert Woods, argued that there was not enough evidence available against Israeli forces and that the facts of the incidents remain unclear.

The incident has been reported by several sources with credible accounts of Israeli forces opening fire on Palestinian aid seekers. An Israeli aerial footage also shows hundreds of people on and around the aid trucks, while graphic videos posted online show bodies loaded onto emptied aid trucks and donkey carts.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed his condemnation of the incident, emphasizing the pressing need for assistance to the desperate civilians in Gaza. He particularly highlighted the situation in the north, where the UN has been unable to deliver aid for over a week.

U.S. President Joe Biden also expressed concerns over the incident and said that it would complicate efforts made by mediators to broker a temporary ceasefire. Other Western countries also condemned the recent incident. France said “fire by Israeli soldiers against civilians trying to access food” was “unjustifiable”.

Hamas has warned that talks in Qatar to try and secure a new ceasefire alongside the release of Israeli hostages it is holding could now be jeopardized.

A convoy of 30 trucks carrying Egyptian flour and other food items was making its way north along what the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) described as a “humanitarian corridor” when it was surrounded by civilians, with people climbing onto the trucks.

“Some began violently pushing and even trampling other Gazans to death, looting the humanitarian supplies,” said the IDF’s chief spokesman, Rear Adm Daniel Hagari. Without specifying the role of IDF, Hagari added that “the unfortunate incident resulted in dozens of Gazans killed and injured.”

Israeli tanks, he said, “cautiously tried to disperse the mob with a few warning shots” but pulled back “when the hundreds became thousands and things got out of hand”.

“No IDF strike was conducted towards the aid convoy,” he said, insisting the Israeli military had been trying to help the aid convoy reach its destination.

Dozens of casualties in critical or severe condition were brought to the nearby Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where medics were unable to cope with the number and severity of cases.

More than 30,000 Palestinians have now been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 7, 2023, according to Gaza authorities. That number equates to about 1.3% of the 2.3 million population of the territory. The majority of those killed were women and children.