The Israeli army shoots at a crowd collecting food in an attack that leaves more than 100 dead in Gaza

The Israeli army acknowledges that it has fired on a crowd of people who were trying to collect food from a convoy of trucks in Gaza on Thursday morning. At least 112 people have died and more than 700 have been injured in the incident, according to sources in the Ministry of Health in Gaza, where Hamas rules. The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) denounces the use, in the “atrocious massacre”, of tanks and artillery fire by the Israeli occupation troops, according to official sources. The Israeli army, for its part, claims that “dozens” were killed or injured by being pushed, trampled and run over by vehicles in the convoy, although it also claims that its soldiers opened fire when they felt they were in danger. The Government of Benjamin Netanyahu describes what happened as a “tragedy.” The incident takes place on the same day that the official death toll in the Strip has exceeded 30,000 and the wounded have exceeded 70,000 since the war began on October 7, according to health sources in the enclave.

The events took place early in the morning on Rachid Street, which runs parallel to the beach, in the southern area of Gaza City. In a video recorded at that point, hundreds of people are seen before dawn trying to get help in the midst of the chaos, while shots are heard and bullets are seen tracing their path in the sky, according to images broadcast by the Qatari network Al Jazeera. Many citizens run or walk quickly carrying bags while some flames are seen on the ground. A woman, who claims to have lost her husband in the war, desperately screams that she has no flour left as she tries to locate her daughter in the tumult. With the light of day, images of dead and wounded at the scene have continued to spread on social networks amid the indignation and pain of those present. Some of the bodies were transported in carts pulled by donkeys, while bloody boxes of humanitarian aid remained on the ground.

The Israeli army has released black and white images recorded from the air by a drone to support its version. Hundreds of people can be seen surrounding the trucks and running from one place to another. The aggression, furthermore, has occurred at a time when it is increasingly difficult to put a stop to the famine that is shaking the population of Gaza, especially those who remain in the north, as in this case. That is the area furthest from Rafah, on the border with Egypt, where the limited flow of humanitarian aid enters the Strip.

Aerial footage of the operation to introduce humanitarian aid to the northern Gaza Strip, showing how the Palestinian crowd attacked the trucks and as a result dozens were killed from overcrowding, crowding and trampling>> pic.twitter.com/a7DqU9kKFB

— Israel Defense Forces (@idfonline) February 29, 2024

The ANP, which continues to describe Israeli actions in Gaza as “genocide,” condemned “the atrocious massacre” committed “against civilians who risked their lives to obtain a small amount of food,” according to a statement from the presidency published by the official agency. Palestinian Wafa. The ANP insists that “Israel be held accountable for committing these horrible crimes before an international court.”

Hamas, for its part, indicated that the attack could jeopardize talks to reach a ceasefire and an exchange of hostages like the one agreed at the end of November, according to a statement cited by Reuters. The president of the United States, Joe Biden, assumes that what happened this Thursday in the Strip will prevent an agreement from being announced in the coming days, a hypothesis that he had considered close this Wednesday.

According to the Israeli version, “early this morning [del jueves], as humanitarian aid vehicles entered the northern Strip, Gaza residents surrounded the trucks and looted the supplies being delivered. During the incident, dozens of Gazans were injured as a result of pushing and stomping,” according to a statement. “Several people surrounding the humanitarian aid trucks approached the Israeli army troops [que se encontraban en la zona] to ensure the passage of trucks as part of a humanitarian operation to transfer aid. The crowd approached the forces in such a way that it represented a threat to the troops, who responded to the threat with live fire,” these military sources add. The Armed Forces added on the social network

“At some point the trucks were overflowing and the people driving them, who were civilian drivers from Gaza, drove into the crowd of people and, from what I understand, ended up killing dozens of people,” government spokesman Avi Hyman told journalists, reports the Reuters agency. “Obviously, it’s a tragedy, but we’re not sure of the details yet,” he added.

Palestinians carry wounded people after Israeli shooting at people waiting for help in Gaza City, in an image taken from a video from February 29, 2024.REUTERS

Beyond Biden’s initial reaction, for the United States what happened represents a “serious incident” in the midst of the “serious humanitarian situation in Gaza, where innocent Palestinians are only trying to feed their families,” according to a statement from the White House. in which the need to increase the flow of aid reaching the enclave is recalled “even through a temporary ceasefire.”

Some members of the Israeli Government applaud what happened. The military “acted excellently against a Gaza mob that tried to harm them,” said the Israeli Minister of National Security, ultra Itamar Ben-Gvir, while demanding to prevent any entry of aid, which he describes as “oxygen for Hamas.” ”, while there are hostages kidnapped.

Israel denies aid blockade

The Israeli Executive continues to deny the reality of the lack of food, water and the most basic things so that the local population can survive. “There is no limit to the amount of humanitarian aid that can enter Gaza,” Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy defended on Thursday through his X social network account (formerly Twitter) alongside a photo of aid packages released on parachute. Levy thus tries to deny the blockade that Israel imposes and that numerous instances denounce daily inside and outside the enclave. “States that want more humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza should simply send it. “Israel has just successfully facilitated the airdrop of food and medical equipment in cooperation with the Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, France and the United States,” he added.

Some countries have resorted to dropping food and basic materials from airplanes as a way to deal with the lockdown imposed by Israel on a population of some 2.3 million inhabitants. Dozens of parachutes filled the sky over the Strip, launched from a Jordanian military plane last Tuesday, while thousands of people followed their path from the ground to run to the landing point and grab the contents of the packages as soon as possible. Some of them were even collected at sea.

Before October 7, the Israeli authorities authorized the entry of half a thousand trucks a day into Gaza, when that territory was not being hit by bombings, famine and the lack of electricity, gas or telephone connection. Now, with markets out of supplies, fields without crops and the majority of those 2.3 million people displaced from their homes, a much larger number of trucks would be necessary, according to the UN and humanitarian organizations.