A distribution of aid in the Strip Loop It became a tragedy that left dozens dead in circumstances that have not yet been clarified.
The Ministry of Health of the Palestinian movement Hamaswho rules in Loopaccused the Israeli army of kill 118 people by shooting into a hungry crowd who pounced on a humanitarian aid convoy.
The Israeli military admitted to “limited shooting” but claimed that most of the victims died in a “stampede.”
This is what we know:
– What happened? –
A witness told AFP that thousands of hungry people rushed on humanitarian aid trucks in the west of Ciudad de Loop.
”The soldiers fired into the crowd because people were getting too close to the Israeli tanks,” said the witness, who asked not to be identified for security reasons.
A senior Israeli defense official indicated that there was a “stampede” in which “thousands of people” were trapped and that “dozens of Gazans were injured and killed, some of them run over by trucks.”
According to this official, dozens of people “then approached the tanks and the Israeli forces.”
“The Soldiers fired warning shots into the air and then shot at those they perceived as a threat“, he acknowledged, while ensuring that the shots had been “limited.”
Aerial images released by the Israeli military show what it claims to be a crowd of Gazans surrounding aid trucks. But the publication of these black and white images, without sound, raises many questions.
They do not include what happened at the beginning or end of the tragedyand some points in the image appear blackened or pixelated.
Two areas appear to show Israeli military vehicles parked near the route where the convoy passed.
The Israeli military has not yet responded to AFP requests for more details.
– How many dead? –
According to him Hamas health ministry in Gaza, 118 people were killed by gunshots and 760 were injureds.
The director of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Gaza City, Hosam Abu Safiya, stated that all the victims were hit by “bullets and shrapnel from the occupation forces.”
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN Secretary General, indicated that a United Nations team that visited the al Shifa hospital in Gaza on Friday saw “a large number of gunshot wounds.”
Team member Georgios Petropoulos, from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), stated that he saw “people with gunshot wounds, (…) amputees and (…) 12-year-old children injured” .
Israeli army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Saturday that the Israeli army had “directed” and “secured this humanitarian operation.” “The claim that we attacked the convoy deliberately hitting people is completely unfounded,” he said.
– An “almost inevitable” famine, according to the UN –
Humanitarian workers have been warning for months of an increasingly desperate situation for Gazans.
OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said on Friday that widespread famine is “almost inevitable” in the Palestinian territory.
According to UN estimates, 2.2 million of the 2.4 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip Loop are threatened by famineespecially in the northern areas, around Gaza City.
According to the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), just over 2,300 trucks with humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip in February, which represents a decrease of around 50% compared to January. This represents an average of less than 100 trucks a day, compared to the nearly 500 a day that entered before the war.
– Who organized the convoy? –
According to Hagari, the convoy of 38 trucks that entered Gaza from the Rafah terminal on the Egyptian border was chartered by “private companies.”
The director of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, indicated on the social network X that neither this organization “nor any other UN agency participated in this distribution.”
Signs for an NGO called Jamiya al Umma appeared on the trucks, but this does not give any indication of the country of origin of the convoy, as this name is common in the region.
Source: Gestion
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