More than 100 Palestinians were killed and hundreds wounded when Israeli troops opened fire on people waiting in a food line in Gaza City, pushing the Palestinian death toll above 30,000 since the war began, the Gaza Health Ministry and Hamas said Thursday.
The Israeli military released aerial footage of crowds swarming the aid trucks and said fewer than 10 of the casualties were a result of Israeli fire.
Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said at least 107 people were killed and 760 wounded. Hamas issued a statement saying Israeli forces, “indifferent to the consequences of its terrorist actions due to the cover and complicity of the administration of US President Biden,” targeted a gathering of thousands of citizens awaiting food aid in Gaza City, where the United Nations has warned of an unprecedented hunger crisis amid the Israeli siege.
Gaza resident Kamel Abu Nahel was hospitalized with a gunshot wound. He told the Associated Press he was shot in the leg by Israeli soldiers who opened fire on crowds that had gathered at the distribution point in the middle of the night. “We’ve been eating animal feed for two months,” he told the Associated Press.
The Israeli military issued a statement saying that “during the early morning delivery of humanitarian aid trucks to the northern Gaza Strip, a violent gathering of Gazan residents developed around the trucks, who looted the equipment.” The statement said dozens of Gazans were wounded as a result of “overcrowding, crowding and trampling.”
The military said about 30 aid trucks rolled up to a checkpoint in Gaza City, setting off a deadly stampede. The initial investigation found that some of the trucks rolled north to the Rimal neighborhood, where the military said armed men opened fire and looted the convoy. Soldiers fired warning shots in the air, then shot at the legs of looters who pressed on, the military said.
The Palestinian Foreign Affairs Ministry condemned the “massacre” and called for an immediate ceasefire to protect civilians.
Developments:
∎ The U.N. says a quarter of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians could face starvation and that 80% have been forced to flee their homes.
∎ Babies in crowded Emirates Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Rafah are forced to share incubators, leading to the spread of disease, hospital officials said.
Palestinian death toll surpasses 30,000; 70,000 wounded
The Palestinian death toll since the war began with a Hamas-led attack on Israel has climbed to 30,035, with another 70,457 Palestinians wounded, the Gaza Health Ministry reported Thursday. The ministry, controlled by the Hamas-run government in the enclave, counts combatants and civilians and says women and children make up two-thirds of the deaths. The ministry’s counts from previous wars have generally matched the tallies of the U.N., independent experts and Israel.
