The EU along with several countries are calling for an investigation into the IDF’s reported shooting of a desperate crowd of Palestinians as they waited for aid – something the UN has condemned.
The Health Ministry in Gaza says more than 100 people were killed and at least 700 wounded.
Israel said many of the dead were trampled in a chaotic crush for the food aid in Gaza City and that its troops fired only when they felt endangered by the crowd.
Now, in the wake of the violence, the EU and several countries including Germany and France have come together to put pressure on Israel to look in to the bloody incident.
The EU’s two top chiefs said Friday they were ‘shocked’ and ‘deeply disturbed’ by the deaths of more than 100 Palestinians after Israeli troops opened fire during an aid delivery, and demanded an investigation.
Aerial photos released by the IDF purport to show the scene as Palestinians attempted to obtain food from aid trucks in Gaza
An image released by the IDF purporting to show the scene. ‘At some point the trucks were overwhelmed and the people driving the trucks, which were Gazan civilian drivers, ploughed into the crowds of people, ultimately killing, my understanding is, tens of people,’ Israeli government spokesperson Avi Hyman told reporters
Over 100 Palestinians were killed on Thursday as the IDF opened fire on them waiting for food
‘Shocked and repulsed by yesterday’s killing of innocent civilians in Gaza while desperately waiting for humanitarian aid,’ European Council President Charles Michel posted on X.
‘An independent investigation should be launched immediately and those responsible held accountable,’ he said.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said she was ‘deeply disturbed by images from Gaza’ and added that ‘every effort must be made to investigate what happened’.
Hamas authorities in Gaza say 112 Palestinians were killed Thursday after Israeli troops opened fire during an aid delivery.
An Israeli source acknowledged the military opened fire on the crowd, adding that the soldiers believed the civilians ‘posed a threat’.
Shortly after Michel and von der Leyen expressed their indignation, the European Commission announced it was strengthening aid funding for Palestinians.
Commission spokesman Eric Mamer said the EU ‘will proceed to paying 50 million euros to UNRWA and increase emergency support to the Palestinians by 68 million euros in 2024’.
UNRWA is the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Its funding from international partners came under threat after Israel accused some of its staff of participating in Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israeli communities near Gaza.
The EU had said it was reviewing but not suspending its funding to UNRWA in light of the Israeli allegations.
Mamer told reporters UNRWA had agreed to a ‘series of conditions’ including an EU-led audit, and that the next tranche of funds would be released ‘early next week,’ with a further 32 million euros to follow later.
The extra 68 million euros in humanitarian aid would go through various organisations like the Red Cross and the Red Crescent, Mamer said.
Injured Palestinians received medical treatment in Al-Shifa Hospital after Israeli forces opened fire on people waiting for humanitarian aid trucks after reportedly feeling threatened at Al-Rashid Street in Gaza City, on Thursday
According to Israel, the incident which saw over 100 Palestinians dead wasn’t barbarism by the IDF like the world is making out, but a mad rush by the Palestinians to get the aid
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Friday asked Israel to conduct a thorough investigation into the deaths of more than 100 Palestinians during an aid delivery in Gaza.
‘The Israeli army must fully investigate how the mass panic and shooting could have happened,’ Baerbock wrote on X, formerly Twitter, also calling for a ‘humanitarian ceasefire’.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday he was angered by the shooting of more than 100 Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid in Gaza and demanded ‘truth and justice’ regarding the role of Israeli soldiers in the incident.
‘Deep indignation at the images coming from Gaza where civilians have been targeted by Israeli soldiers. I express my strongest condemnation of these shootings and call for truth, justice, and respect for international law,’ Macron said in a post on X.
He said it was imperative for an immediate ceasefire in the war to be put in place.
Palestinians mourn near a body at Kamal Edwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, after Israeli soldiers allegedly opened fire at Gaza residents waiting for aid trucks
Palestinians carry the bodies of those killed in the attack from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital morgue for burial in Deir al-Balah, Gaza
Speaking on France Inter radio on Friday, Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said Paris would back the United Nations’ call for an independent investigation.
‘The humanitarian situation has been catastrophic for several weeks now and what happened is indefensible and unjustifiable. Israel needs to be able to hear it and it needs to stop,’ Sejourne told France Inter.
‘We have gone a step further, people are fighting for food and there are riots. I heard the request from the Secretary General of the United Nations to open an independent investigation and I think that France will support this,’ Sejourne said.
The US, has been more coy with their response to the recent killings.
President Joe Biden said the incident would complicate delicate ceasefire negotiations in the almost five-month-old war, with the White House calling the deaths ‘tremendously alarming’.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters the United States was ‘urgently seeking additional information on exactly what took place’.
Washington will be monitoring an upcoming investigation closely and ‘pressing for answers’, he said.
An image released by the IDF purporting to show the scene as clusters of people surrounding several of the aid trucks
Al Jazeera published videos that claim to show the aftermath of the alleged shooting. People appear to run away and take cover in one, while injured civilians are taken away in another
A vast number of other countries around the globe have condemned Israel and the IDF for the bloody incident.
The Palestinian death toll is now more than 30,000 in the Gaza Strip since Israel’s war on Hamas began nearly five months ago after Hamas-led militants stormed across southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 others hostage.
According to Israel, the incident which saw over 100 Palestinians dead wasn’t barbarism by the IDF like the world is making out.
IDF Military officials said the pre-dawn convoy of 30 aid trucks driving to northern Gaza were met by huge crowds of people trying to grab the aid they were carrying.
Dozens of Palestinians were killed in the stampede and some were run over by the trucks as the drivers tried to get away, said Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the chief military spokesperson.
Israeli troops guarding the area fired warning shots toward the crowd because they felt endangered, he added.
‘We didn’t open fire on those seeking aid. Contrary to the accusations, we didn’t open fire on a humanitarian aid convoy, not from the air and not from land. We secured it so it could reach northern Gaza,’ he said.
However, aid groups say it has become nearly impossible to deliver humanitarian assistance in most of Gaza because of the difficulty of coordinating with the Israeli military, ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of public order, with crowds of desperate people overwhelming aid convoys.
Relatives of Palestinians killed during the attack mourn as their bodies are taken from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital morgue for burial in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on Thursday
‘Shocked and repulsed by yesterday’s killing of innocent civilians in Gaza while desperately waiting for humanitarian aid,’ European Council President Charles Michel posted on X.
Kamel Abu Nahel, who was being treated for a gunshot wound at Shifa Hospital, said he and others went to the distribution point in the middle of the night because they heard there would be a delivery of food.
He said Israeli troops opened fire on the crowd as people pulled boxes of flour and canned goods off the trucks, causing them to scatter, with some hiding under cars.
After the shooting stopped, people went back to the trucks, and the soldiers opened fire again. He was shot in the leg and fell over, and then a truck ran over his leg as it sped off, he said.
Alaa Abu Daiya, a witness to the violence, said Israeli troops opened fire and a tank fired a shell.
Medics arriving at the scene on Thursday found ‘dozens or hundreds’ lying on the ground, according to Fares Afana, the head of the ambulance service at Kamal Adwan Hospital.
He said there were not enough ambulances to collect all the dead and wounded and some were being taken to hospital in donkey carts.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said she was ‘deeply disturbed by images from Gaza’ and added that ‘every effort must be made to investigate what happened’
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Friday asked Israel to conduct a thorough investigation into the deaths of more than 100 Palestinians during an aid delivery in Gaza
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday he was angered by the shooting of more than 100 Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid in Gaza and demanded ‘truth and justice’ regarding the role of Israeli soldiers in the incident
Benjamin Netanyahu is being called upon to do an investigation into the IDF’s mass-killing
Dr Mohammed Salha, acting director of the Al-Awda Hospital, said the facility received 161 wounded patients, most of whom appeared to have been shot.
He said the hospital can perform only the most essential surgery because it is running out of fuel to power emergency generators.
The UN says a quarter of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians face starvation, and around 80% have fled their homes.
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