Watch: Images of the chaos and panic during food distribution are circulating on social media.
According to Hamas, Israel opened fire on the crowds waiting for a humanitarian aid convoy last Thursday. Video circulating on social media shows people camping on al-Rashid Street, the coastal road south of Gaza. It is an area that has recently been used as a distribution point for aid.
On Thursday, February 29, around 4 a.m. local time, a convoy passes an Israeli army location and continues north along al-Rashid Street under the escort of the Israeli army. According to Israel, the convoy consisted of thirty trucks, but other sources say there were only eighteen.
Daniel Hagari, the chief spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), said that at 4:45 a.m. local time, trucks were surrounded by a crowd. Drone images released by the Israeli army clearly show people gathering around the aid convoy. What happens next is not entirely clear.
IDF has distributed a video consisting of four separate parts. The first two parts of the video show people surrounding two or more trucks. The other parts of the video show events about 500 meters further south. Once again people can be seen walking around the trucks, but this time people also appear to be lying motionless on the ground.
News channel Al Jazeera also distributed images. Those images were taken near the second location at the rear of the convoy. Gunshots are heard. People climb over the trucks and dive behind the vehicles. There are also red flashes of light in the sky.
‘Deliberate shooting’
A journalist who was present at the time of the incident, Mahmoud Awadeya, said shots were fired at people from Israeli vehicles when the aid convoy arrived. “They shot deliberately. They were trying to get near the truck that had the flour. They were immediately shot at and prevented people from coming near the fatalities.”
There were reports of victims being taken to various hospitals. Doctor Mohamed Salha, who works at al-Awda Hospital, said: “Al-Awda Hospital treated 176 injured people after the shooting incident. 142 people had gunshot wounds, the others had wounds from the stampede such as broken limbs.” That is not consistent with what the Israeli army claims.
“A day after the tragic events that left hundreds of people dead, we are visiting Al Shifa Hospital with the United Nations,” said Georgios Petropoulos, head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for Gaza. “Right now, this hospital is treating more than 200 people who were injured at the time. We have seen people with gunshot wounds, with amputated body parts and injured children under the age of twelve. We can’t let things like this happen anymore.”
Israeli army statement
The Israeli army issued a statement on Thursday at 1:06 pm local time. “This morning as the trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered, Gazans surrounded the trucks and looted the supplies being delivered. During the incident, dozens of Gaza residents were injured as a result of pushing and shoving.”
That statement will be adjusted later. In further statements to Britain’s Channel 4 News, Israeli Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lener said a “mob stormed the convoy and at one point brought it to a standstill.” “The tanks that were there to secure the convoy see the Palestinian civilians being trampled and gently try to disperse the crowd with a few warning shots.”
In another interview on CNN, a special advisor to the Israeli army, Mark Regev, says that Israel was not involved in any way on the ground. He claimed that the Israeli army had opened fire in a separate incident unrelated to the aid convoy, but provided no further evidence. “The convoy incident involved Palestinian armed groups. We don’t know if this was Hamas.”
Independent research
World leaders have demanded an independent investigation into the event. Our country also wants such an investigation. Prime Minister De Croo said this yesterday during a press moment.
France also wants an independent investigation and Germany has called on Israel to be transparent about what exactly happened. EU Commission President Von der Leyen wants “no effort spared to investigate what happened and to guarantee transparency”.
