A distribution of humanitarian aid turned into chaos this Thursday in Gaza City, while the war between Israel and Hamas has already left “more than 30,000 dead” in the territory according to a report communicated by the Palestinian movement the same day .
What happened ?
This Thursday, a doctor at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, in the north, announced that soldiers had shot at “thousands of citizens” who were rushing towards aid trucks.
Witnesses told AFP of scenes in which thousands of people rushed towards aid trucks in a roundabout in the west of the city.
On X (formerly Twitter), the IDF indicated residents had “surrounded trucks” that had entered northern Gaza and “looted” their cargo.
This morning humanitarian aid trucks entered northern Gaza, residents surrounded the trucks and looted the supplies being delivered.
As a result of the pushing, tramping and being run over by the trucks, dozens of Gazans were killed and injured.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) February 29, 2024
Israeli sources confirmed shootings on the crowd but denied responsibility for the heavy death toll.
The Israeli army explained to AFP that its soldiers fired live ammunition after feeling “threatened”.
What is the outcome?
The number of victims is, for the moment, uncertain.
According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, “the death toll from the al-Rashid Street massacre” stands at “104 dead and 760 injured.”
The American news agency Associated Press reports the death of at least 70 people.
The IDF reports on X that “dozens of Gazans were killed and injured following the stampedes, trampling and crushing of trucks.”
Also read: Gaza: despite the UN's fear of "generalized famine", why is it so difficult for humanitarian aid to arrive?
The director of a hospital in Gaza City, quoted by Reuters, said he received more than ten bodies as well as dozens of wounded in this attack.
“We don't know how many other victims were taken to other hospitals,” he said.
The head of the Kamal Adwan Hospital emergency service deplored an insufficient number of ambulances given the number of deaths and injuries.
Some of them were allegedly taken on carts, he told AP.
The Red Crescent humanitarian organization in Palestine confirmed to Al-Jazeera that it was unable to cope with the influx of victims.
“As we speak, the entire health service in Gaza is collapsing, there is no more fuel (
to supply the hospitals
),” he describes.
Twenty NGO employees were killed in this attack, according to the Red Crescent.
Truce threatened according to Hamas
Hamas warned that this drama could prevent a new truce with Israel, in a statement cited by Reuters.
The mediating countries are hoping for a break before the start of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting which begins on the evening of March 10 or 11, but without reporting any concrete progress so far.
VIDEO.
Gaza: humanitarian aid dropped from the air as Palestinians face famine
“The death toll in Gaza has exceeded 30,000, the vast majority of them women and children.
More than 70,000 Palestinians were injured.
This appalling violence and suffering must end.
Ceasefire,” launched the Director General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on the social network X.
Gaza in the grip of famine
Across the Gaza Strip, civilians are caught in daily fighting and bombardments, which have spared no area, devastated entire neighborhoods and forced thousands of families to flee.
“We haven't eaten bread for two months.
Our children are starving,” Muhammad Yassin, a 35-year-old man living in Zeitun, in the north, told AFP who went out early in the morning to buy flour and found “thousands of people waiting since long hours to get one or two kilos of flour.”
“It is a crime and a disaster.
Such an unfair world,” he added.
According to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), humanitarian needs are “unlimited”.
“Famine is looming.
Hospitals have turned into battlefields.
One million children face daily trauma,” UNRWA said.