US-based aid group ANERA said that Gaza Israeli air strikes Thursday on an aid convoy carrying food and fuel to a hospital in Attacks I four Palestinians were killed
Israel claimed they were ‘armed attackers’, which the group has denied.
The aid group said in a statement on Friday that the four Palestinians were aboard an ANERA aid convoy headed to the Emirati Red Crescent Hospital in Rafah, southern Gaza.
Anira said that as the convoy left the Israeli-controlled Karim Shalom crossing in Gaza, four Palestinians “took control of the vehicle ahead, fearing that the route was unsafe and there was a risk of being hijacked.”
“Israeli authorities alleged that the leading car was carrying multiple weapons,” the group said. “Every initial report from the people at the scene indicated that there was no weapon.”
In a plan agreed with Israeli authorities, unarmed security guards were called into the convoy.
Anira said the four were neither vetted nor contacted by Israeli authorities, but the convoy did not consider them a threat.
The group said there was no warning or communication prior to the Israeli airstrike.
None of the Anira staff members were injured in the attack. The statement said that after the death of these four, the rest of the convoy provided aid.
A statement from the Israel Defense Forces, quoted by several media outlets, said several armed attackers took control of the vehicle leading the convoy. And started leading it.
“After control was taken and it was further confirmed that the vehicle of the armed attackers could be accurately attacked, an attack was carried out,” the IDF said.
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The Israeli military and the Israeli embassy in Washington could not immediately be reached for further comment.
Aid and humanitarian organizations have been targeted before in Israel’s Gaza offensive.
In April, three Israeli strikes targeted a convoy of aid vehicles, killing seven employees of the World Central Kitchen.
The United Nations World Food Program said this week that one of its vehicles was hit by 10 bullets near an Israeli military checkpoint.
According to the local Ministry of Health, more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed so far in the ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza.
Almost all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced, and the strip is suffering from famine.
Israel faces genocide charges at the International Court of Justice, which it denies.
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2024-08-31 22:30:34