Israel’s military has claimed that most of those killed as crowds massed near an aid convoy in Gaza last week died in a stampede, contrary to reports from health officials that many casualties had been hit by large calibre ammunition and gunfire.
Officials from the Hamas-run health ministry say at least 100 people were killed in the disaster last Thursday, most of them shot by Israeli troops, with some putting the number of dead and wounded as high as 1,000.
Israeli officials have dismissed the claims and the death toll, but have not offered any estimates of their own. They admitted that ‘several individuals’ were hit as troops fired on people in the aftermath of the crush.
In a statement, Israel’s Defence Forces said they had ‘concluded an initial review’ and that civilians had been ‘trampled to death and injured as they charged to the aid convoy,’ adding that ‘no strike was carried out by the IDF’ towards it.
Pressure has mounted on Israel over the incident, with EU chiefs saying they were ‘shocked’ and ‘deeply disturbed’ by the deaths and several countries backing a UN call for an inquiry.
Palestinian health officials say at least 100 people were killed in the disaster last Thursday. Pictured: Aerial images released by the IDF that purport to show scene of alleged massacre
Palestinians receive medical care at Kamal Edwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, on February 29, 2024
Al Jazeera published videos that claim to show the aftermath of the alleged shooting. People appear to run away and take cover in one, while injured civilians are taken away in another
IDF officials said that the pre-dawn convoy of 30 aid trucks driving to northern Gaza had been met by huge crowds trying to grab the aid they were carrying.
Dozens were killed in the stampede and some were run over by the trucks as the drivers tried to get away, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the chief military spokesperson, said in the wake of the deaths.
Israeli troops guarding the area in al-Rashid Street, a coast road to the south-west of Gaza City, fired warning shots toward the crowd because they felt endangered, he added.
‘We didn’t open fire on those seeking aid. Contrary to the accusations, we didn’t open fire on a humanitarian aid convoy, not from the air and not from land. We secured it so it could reach northern Gaza,’ he said.
Hagari today announced the results of the IDF’s preliminary review of the incident, repeating earlier Israeli statements that most of those killed had been trampled underfoot as crowds rushed the aid trucks.
In addition ‘several individuals’ were hit as troops fired on people who approached them in the aftermath in a manner that suggested an immediate threat.
He added that Israel has also launched a more thorough examination of the incident to be handled by ‘an independent, professional and expert body’ which will share its findings as early as in the coming days.
Muatasem Salah, a member of the Emergency Committee at the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza, said there were more than 1,000 casualties, dead and wounded, from the incident and he dismissed the findings of the Israeli review.
‘Any attempt to claim that people were martyred due to overcrowding or being run over is incorrect.
‘The wounded and martyrs are the result of being shot with heavy-calibre bullets,’ he said.
Many of Israel’s closest allies, including the United States, have called for an inquiry into the incident.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters that the US was ‘urgently seeking additional information on exactly what took place’.
Palestinians carry the bodies of those killed in the attack from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital morgue for burial in Deir al-Balah, Gaza
Injured Palestinians received medical treatment in Al-Shifa Hospital on Thursday
Palestinians receive medical care at Kamal Edwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip on February 29 after Israeli soldiers allegedly opened fire at Gaza residents
Washington will be monitoring an upcoming investigation closely and ‘pressing for answers’, he said.
Meanwhile, European Council President Charles Michel posted on X: ‘Shocked and repulsed by yesterday’s killing of innocent civilians in Gaza while desperately waiting for humanitarian aid.’
‘An independent investigation should be launched immediately and those responsible held accountable,’ he said.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said she was ‘deeply disturbed by images from Gaza’ and added that ‘every effort must be made to investigate what happened’.
As the diplomatic fallout spread, the military said it had launched a more thorough examination of the incident to be handled by ‘an independent, professional and expert body’ which will share its findings as early as in the coming days.
Hagari’s remarks suggested that some of the dead had been killed by Israeli fire after soldiers fired initial warning shots but he gave no details or figures.
‘Following the warning shots fired to disperse the stampede and after our forces had started retreating, several looters approached our forces and posed an immediate threat to them. According to the initial review, the soldiers responded toward several individuals,’ he said.
Medics arriving at the scene on Thursday found ‘dozens or hundreds’ lying on the ground, according to Fares Afana, the head of the ambulance service at Kamal Adwan Hospital.
An image released by the IDF purporting to show the scene. ‘At some point the trucks were overwhelmed and the people driving the trucks, which were Gazan civilian drivers, ploughed into the crowds of people, ultimately killing, my understanding is, tens of people,’ Israeli government spokesperson Avi Hyman told reporters
Aerial photos released by the IDF purport to show the scene as Palestinians attempted to obtain food from aid trucks in Gaza
He said there were not enough ambulances to collect all the dead and wounded and some were being taken to hospital in donkey carts.
Dr Mohammed Salha, acting director of the Al-Awda Hospital, said the facility received 161 wounded patients, most of whom appeared to have been shot.
He said the hospital can perform only the most essential surgery because it is running out of fuel to power emergency generators.
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.
He claimed 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.
Alaa Abu Daiya, a witness to the violence, said Israeli troops opened fire and a tank fired a shell.
Palestinians running toward parachutes attached to food parcels, air-dropped from US aircrafts
The tragedy has underscored the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the increasingly chaotic conditions in which the small amount of aid reaching the enclave is being distributed.
International aid organizations have warned that hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza are facing the threat of famine.
While Israel denies restricting humanitarian aid for Gaza civilians, no humanitarian group has been able to provide aid since January 23, the World Food Programme has warned.
‘If nothing changes, a famine is imminent in northern Gaza,’ WFP’s deputy executive director Carl Skau told the UN Security Council today, while his colleague from the UN humanitarian office OCHA, Ramesh Rajasingham, warned of ‘almost inevitable’ widespread starvation.
At least 15 children have died over the past few days from malnutrition and dehydration at Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital, the health ministry in Gaza said in a statement.
‘We fear for the lives of 6 (other) children suffering from malnutrition and diarrhea at the hospital’s intensive care unit as a result of the cessation of the electric generator and oxygen and the weakness of medical capabilities,’ Ashraf Al-Qidra, the Gaza health ministry spokesperson, said.
People cry as they mourn while receiving the dead bodies of victims of an Israeli strike on March 2
At the end of last month, Rajasingham said ‘at least 576,000 people in Gaza – one-quarter of the population’ were ‘one step away from famine, with one in six children under two years of age in northern Gaza suffering from acute malnutrition and wasting’.
Almost five months have passed since Israeli troops launched their invasion following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7.
The attack, which killed some 1,200 Israelis and foreigners, was the deadliest single-day incident in Israel’s 75 year history and Israel has responded with a relentless assault that has so far killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian figures.