CAIRO: Gaza health authorities said more than 100 Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces as they waited for aid to arrive on Thursday, but Israel disputed the death toll, saying many were run over by trucks.
At least 112 people were killed and more than 280 injured in the incident near Gaza City, Palestinian health officials said, as the death toll in the nearly five-month war surpassed 30,000.
Paramedics said they were unable to cope with the volume and severity of the injuries. Dozens were taken to Al-Shifa hospital, which is only partially operational after the Israeli airstrikes.
The loss of civilian life was the heaviest in recent weeks. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said it was an “ugly massacre carried out by the Israeli occupation army on people who were waiting for relief vehicles at the roundabout in Nabulsi”.
Israel disputed the account provided by health officials in Hamas-ruled Gaza, which has been bombarded by Israeli forces for months in a war that began after the Palestinian militant group’s deadly rampage in southern Israel on October 7.
An Israeli army official said there were two separate incidents as a convoy of trucks crossed into northern Gaza from the south along the main coastal road.
In the first, he said the trucks were surrounded by hundreds of people and in the confusion dozens were injured or killed by being trampled or run over.
As the trucks drove away, he said some of those rushing the convoy approached Israeli forces, including a tank, which then opened fire.
“Soldiers fired warning shots into the air and then fired at those who posed a threat and did not move away,” he told reporters. “That’s what we understand. We are continuing to investigate the circumstances.”
He said he did not believe the death toll provided by the Palestinian Authority, but gave no Israeli estimate, saying: “It was a limited response.”
BIDEN SAYS incident will complicate ceasefire talks
Ashraf Al-Qidra, spokesman for Gaza’s health ministry, said the comments showed that Israel “had premeditated intentions to commit a new crime and massacre” and that the death toll could rise.
Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, said the incident could jeopardize talks in Qatar aimed at securing a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages it is holding.
Asked if he thought the incident would complicate the talks, US President Joe Biden said: “I know it will.
Diplomats said the UN Security Council would meet behind closed doors to discuss developments in Gaza.
One video shared on social media, the location of which Reuters was able to verify, showed trucks loaded with many dead bodies as well as injured people.
Another, which Reuters could not verify, showed blood-stained people being carried in a truck, bodies wrapped in shrouds and doctors treating injured patients on the hospital floor.
“We don’t want that kind of help. We don’t want help and bullets together. There are many martyrs,” the man said in one of the videos.
A spokesman for the White House National Security Council said: “We mourn the loss of innocent lives and recognize the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, where innocent Palestinians are just trying to feed their families.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a congressional hearing that Israel has killed more than 25,000 women and children in Gaza since October 7 and that it could and should do more to protect civilians.
In a post on X, UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said he was “appalled” and added: “Even after almost five months of brutal hostilities, Gaza still has the capacity to shock us.
PALESTINIAN DEATH TOLL OVER 30,000
Palestinian health authorities said 30,035 Palestinians were now confirmed to have been killed and more than 70,000 wounded in the Israeli offensive, launched after an October 7 attack in which Israel said Hamas gunmen killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 253.
Much of Gaza has been reduced to rubble, and most of its 2.3 million residents have been displaced from their homes at least once.
Aid deliveries to northern Gaza have been sparse and chaotic, passing through more active military zones to an area where the UN says many people are starving, with videos showing desperate crowds swarming around supply trucks.
The UN and other aid agencies have complained that Israel has blocked or limited their attempts to get aid to the area.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN’s Palestinian aid agency UNRWA, told reporters in Jerusalem that aid deliveries to Gaza as a whole had been cut in half since January.
Gaza City’s uniformed police have refused to escort aid convoys as several have been killed in Israeli strikes.
“The more you reduce supplies to Gaza, the more you encourage anxiety and despair,” Lazzarini said.
Israel has denied cutting humanitarian aid and blamed the UN for failing to deliver supplies.
On Wednesday, Israel said a convoy of 31 trucks moved into northern Gaza on Tuesday night and that the UN was responsible for the distribution. The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said no UN agency was involved in the aid convoy.
The conflict in Gaza has also increased tensions with Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Two men were killed there when a gunman opened fire at a gas station and was “neutralized” by security forces, the Israeli military said.
