More than 100 Palestinians were killed and 700-plus were injured when Israeli troops opened fire on people waiting for food in Gaza City, pushing the Palestinian death toll above 30,000 since the war began, the Gaza Health Ministry and Hamas said Thursday.
Israeli authorities released aerial footage of crowds swarming arriving aid trucks, placed blame on the crush of the crowd and Palestinian truck drivers and said fewer than 10 of the casualties were a result of Israeli gunfire.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s chief spokesperson, said troops only fired warning shots to disperse the huge, threatening crowds.
“We didn’t open fire on those seeking aid,” Hagari said. “Contrary to the accusations, we didn’t open fire on a humanitarian aid convoy, not from the air and not from land.”
Dr. Mohammed Salha, acting director of the Al-Awda Hospital, said most of the 161 wounded patients the facility received appeared to have been shot.
Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said at least 112 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 said.
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.
Israeli government spokesperson Avi Hyman told Al-Jazeera the trucks were overwhelmed and the civilian Palestinian drivers ploughed into the crowds, killing dozens. In January, witnesses and Gaza health officials said Israeli troops fired on an aid distribution site in Gaza City, killing at least 20.
The Palestinian Foreign Affairs Ministry condemned the latest “massacre” and called for an immediate cease-fire to protect civilians.
