The Palestinian Health Ministry condemned what it called a “massacre.” (representative)
Palestinian territories:
Israeli forces opened fire on a group of Palestinians at an aid distribution point in the war-torn Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing at least 104 people and wounding more than 700, according to Palestinian health officials.
Israeli sources confirmed that troops opened fire on crowds of people believing they “posed a threat” during pre-dawn incidents in Gaza City, north of the besieged region.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza condemned the so-called “massacre” and said the incident had left at least 104 people dead and 760 injured.
The violence erupted as thousands of people desperate for food rushed towards rescue trucks at the Nabulsi roundabout in the west of the city, a witness told AFP.
“The truck loaded with aid came too close to some army tanks in the area and thousands of people rushed towards the truck,” said the witness, who declined to be named for security reasons.
“Soldiers fired into the crowd because people were too close to the tanks.”
The Israeli military initially said that “as humanitarian aid trucks entered the northern Gaza Strip, Gaza residents surrounded the trucks and looted the supplies being transported.”
“Dozens of Gazans were injured as a result of pushing and trampling during the incident. The incident is under review,” the statement added.
Later, an unnamed Israeli source told AFP that “the crowd approached the troops in a manner that posed a threat to them, and the troops responded to the threat with live ammunition.”
Health officials reported a steady rise in the death toll as the dead and injured were rushed to Gaza’s few remaining functioning hospitals.
“Due to weak medical and personnel capabilities, medical teams are unable to handle the volume and type of injured arriving at Shifa Medical Centre,” an official said in a statement.
– Famine warning –
AFP television footage showed the bodies of two men being carried away in donkey carts.
Health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said the death toll from the “massacre” in Gaza City was “104 martyred and 760 injured as a result of the occupying forces’ firing on citizens’ gatherings.”
Gaza faces an increasingly dire humanitarian situation nearly five months after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, sparking war.
Hamas attacks killed about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Israel’s ruthless military campaign to eliminate Hamas has killed more than 30,000 people, mostly women and children, according to the Israeli Health Ministry.
The United Nations estimates that the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.4 million people face the threat of famine, particularly in the north, where destruction, fighting and looting have made aid nearly impossible to deliver.
According to UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, more than 2,300 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip in February, about 50% less than in January.
Thursday’s bloody incident sparked heated debate at the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Palestinian Ambassador Ibrahim Mohammed al-Khelahi confronted his Israeli counterpart over the reported casualties and said: “Are these human shields? Are these Hamas fighters?”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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