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The Israeli army has acknowledged this Thursday that it has fired on a crowd trying to collect food in Gaza City (north) during an incident in which, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health - controlled by Hamas - 104 people have died and 280 have been injured.
The episode occurred when some people - who have been suffering from a severe lack of food for weeks - tried to assault trucks with aid, which were near the Israeli tanks.
The soldiers then fired into the crowd because they considered them to be in danger, according to Israeli military sources.
These sources have stated that the human avalanche was what caused the “injuries.”
Later, an Israeli Government spokesperson stated that evidence indicates that the deaths occurred when the drivers collided with the crowd.
This episode comes after the Gaza government on Wednesday reported the first deaths of children from starvation.
Meanwhile, the Gaza Ministry of Health has also reported that the number of deaths in the enclave due to the Israeli offensive has exceeded 30,000, which represents 1.3% of the enclave's population.
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Hamas threatens to stop negotiations with Israel for a truce over the death of more than 100 people in Gaza City
Hamas, the organization considered terrorist by the EU and the United States that has
de facto
governed Gaza since 2007, has warned this afternoon in a statement that the death of more than 100 people in Gaza City (the largest city in the enclave, located in the north) while trying to get food from a convoy of trucks with humanitarian aid may put an end to negotiations between the Islamist militia and Israel to agree on a ceasefire in the Strip and the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
“The negotiations carried out by the leaders of the movement are not an open process at the expense of the blood of our people,” says the statement, which refers to the incident this Thursday in the Gazan capital.
Hamas also states in the text that Israel will be responsible for the failure of the talks if they finally derail.
The Gaza Health Ministry - controlled by Hamas - has stated that 104 people have been killed and some 280 injured in an attack by the Israeli army when a crowd attacked trucks carrying humanitarian aid, which were near Israeli tanks.
The soldiers of the Jewish State army then fired into the crowd because they considered them to be in danger, according to Israeli military sources.
These sources have stated that the human avalanche was what caused the “injuries.”
Later, an Israeli Government spokesperson stated that evidence indicates that the deaths occurred when the drivers – who were Gazan civilians – collided with the crowd.
Hamas refers in its statement to the negotiations that are now taking place in Qatar between the militia and Israel with the mediation of Doha, the United States and Egypt.
These three states agreed last Friday in Paris on a proposal that Hamas officials are currently analyzing and which consists of a six-week ceasefire in Gaza to exchange 40 civilian hostages: women, those under 19, those over 50 and the sick.
In exchange, Israel would release 400 Palestinian prisoners, allow more humanitarian aid to enter the Strip, relocate troops and allow residents of evacuated areas who are not of fighting age to return to see the state of their homes.
For now, Hamas and Israel only agreed to a ceasefire in November, which lasted a week and allowed the release of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
(Agencies)
ACT.29 FEB 2024 - 15:37
The country
Injured Palestinians are treated this Thursday at the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza after an attack by Israeli troops against a crowd that attacked food trucks.
/ Dawoud Abo Alkas / Anadolu / Getty Images
Israel now says food truck drivers in Gaza City caused deaths by colliding with crowds
An Israeli Government spokesperson described as a “tragedy” this afternoon the death of dozens of people – at least 104, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health – who suffered an attack by the Israeli army in Gaza City (the capital, located in the north of the enclave) while trying to assault a convoy of trucks with humanitarian aid.
After the Israeli army acknowledged that it fired on civilians because the trucks were too close to its tanks and the soldiers felt threatened, the government spokesman said that preliminary indications indicate that the deaths occurred when the drivers of the vehicles They crashed into the crowd.
“At one point, the trucks were overwhelmed and the drivers, who were Gazan civilians, collided with the crowd, causing the death, I understand, of dozens of people,” spokesperson Avi Hyman told the media.
“Obviously, it's a tragedy, but we're not sure of the details yet,” he added.
The Gaza Health Ministry – controlled by Hamas – has stated that, in addition to the 104 dead, there are some 280 wounded.
Those affected were trying to get food from trucks with humanitarian aid due to the severe lack of food they have been suffering for weeks.
This episode occurred after on Wednesday the Government of the Strip reported the first deaths of children due to starvation.
In recent days, several NGOs and the UN World Food Program (WFP) have suspended their aid distributions, especially in the north of the Strip, due to the growing difficulties in distributing it.
Israel allows few trucks to pass through and as a result, the population is increasingly hungry.
Public order is almost non-existent and, when desperate residents see a shipment, they go after it.
In February, half of what arrived in January has entered, according to UN data.
The United Nations also estimates that a quarter of Gaza's roughly two million people are at risk of famine.
One in six children under two years of age in the Strip suffers from malnutrition.
(Agenicias)
ACT.29 FEB 2024 - 15:02
The country
Humanitarian aid for Gaza dropped from the air by a Jordanian plane mistakenly falls into Israeli territory
Several packages with humanitarian aid intended for civilians in devastated Gaza that were dropped this Thursday from a Jordanian plane have landed by mistake in Israeli territory, according to the Israeli army.
“The Jordanian army has dropped humanitarian aid equipment in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
Due to the winds, some of the aid packages landed in Israeli territory,” indicated a military spokesperson.
According to Israeli media, some packages reached as far as the Ashkelon resort, about 15 kilometers from the enclave.
The war between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas has caused an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave in five months, where according to several UN agencies, famine will be inevitable.
Some two million displaced people – almost the entire population of Gaza – are trying to survive amid the widespread destruction of homes, the collapse of hospitals, the outbreak of epidemics, and the dire shortage of drinking water, food, medicines. and electricity.
In fact, on Wednesday, the Strip Government reported the first deaths of children from starvation.
The UN refugee agency (UNRWA) has been unable to distribute food since January 23.
Faced with the slow and insufficient entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza by land, several countries - including Jordan, Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and France - have been dropping aid from the air in recent days, trying to reach the north of the enclave, where The humanitarian crisis is even more serious due to the inaccessible terrain and the constant fighting.
In the last 24 hours, six children have died of dehydration and malnutrition in northern Gaza, where two hospitals stopped operating due to a lack of power and supplies.
International organizations such as Human Rights Watch have accused Israel of using famine as a weapon of war, which constitutes a crime under international law.
(Agencies)
ACT.29 FEB 2024 - 13:15
Luis de Vega
Israel admits shooting at crowd that attacked humanitarian aid trucks in Gaza
The Israeli army acknowledges that it has fired on a crowd of people trying to collect food in Gaza during an incident in which, according to local authorities, controlled by Hamas, at least 104 people have been killed and more than 700 injured.
Some citizens who were gathered around the trucks carrying the food approached positions of the occupation troops in the midst of the chaos after some of them were victims of pushing and stomping.
It was then that the soldiers opened fire because they felt they were in danger, according to the version given by Israeli military sources.
According to these sources, “during the delivery of humanitarian aid in northern Gaza, residents surrounded the trucks and looted the supplies.
During the incident, dozens of Gazans were injured as a result of being pushed and trampled.”
He also claims that “several people surrounding the trucks approached the Israeli soldiers who were controlling the security of the trucks' passage.
The crowd approached the troops in such a way that they posed a threat to the soldiers, who responded by opening fire.
The incident is under investigation,” military sources conclude.
The army has published a tweet with aerial images in which a crowd is seen attacking several trucks.
Previously, he had said that he was not aware of any bombing by his forces, without referring to the shooting that he has now acknowledged by his uniformed forces on the ground.
The blockade of humanitarian aid entering the Palestinian enclave is at the root of incidents of this type.
The population, without access to the most basic things to survive, has been fighting for weeks to get food and water.
The local authorities, controlled by Hamas, reported this Wednesday the first fatalities due to lack of food.
ACT.29 FEB 2024 - 15:02
The country
Israel says it has no knowledge of the attack that killed dozens of people at a food distribution in Gaza
The Israeli army has stated that it is not aware of any bombing by its forces in the western area of Gaza City - the largest city in the Strip and located in the north - after the authorities of the enclave, controlled by Hamas , have claimed that at least 70 people queuing to collect food have been killed – and around 250 injured – in an attack by Israeli soldiers in that area.
“We are not aware of any Israeli bombing in the area,” said a military spokesman for the Jewish state.
Israel refers to the fact that it is not aware of any bombing in that area of Gaza City, but the authorities of the enclave have not specified what type of attack the civilians have allegedly suffered.
The Media Office of the Government of the Strip, controlled by Hamas since 2007, speaks in a statement of a “horrible massacre” among people who “were seeking sustenance in the southwest of Gaza City, where they went to obtain food and help after that more than 700,000 people have been subjected to famine due to the siege of the occupation army.”
In the note, Hamas claims that Israel committed the massacre intentionally.
“The attack was premeditated and intentional, in the context of the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the people of the Gaza Strip.
"The occupation army knew that these victims had come to this area to obtain food and help, but they killed them in cold blood," the statement said.
(Agencies)
ACT.29 FEB 2024 - 12:10
The country
Relatives of Israeli hostages held by Hamas march towards Jerusalem from southern Israel to demand the release of their loved ones.
/ ABIR SULTAN / EFE
What has happened in the last few hours
These are the most relevant news about the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, at 12:00 this Thursday, February 29:
- An Israeli attack kills more than 70 people waiting for a food delivery in Gaza, according to Hamas
.
Authorities in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip have reported the death of more than 70 people in an Israeli attack on a group of people waiting for food in Gaza City, north of the Strip, with 250 injured. .
Israel has stated that it is not aware of any bombing in the area.
- The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights accuses Israel and Hamas of war crimes
.
The attacks by Hamas and associated armed groups on Israeli soil on October 7, 2023, but also the current siege of Gaza by Israel, constitute war crimes, says a report presented this Thursday by High Commissioner Volker Türk to the Council of Human Rights of the UN.
In the report, Türk also warns against a possible Israeli ground offensive in Rafah.
- The death toll from the Israeli offensive in Gaza exceeds 30,000, according to Hamas
.
The Gaza Health Ministry, controlled by Hamas, reported this Thursday that the death toll from the Israeli offensive in Gaza now rises to 30,035 people.
In addition, the operation has left at least 70,457 injured.
- The US is studying the launch of humanitarian aid to Gaza from the air
.
The US is considering dropping humanitarian aid to Gaza from the air, due to the increasing difficulties in distributing it in trucks due to the Israeli offensive and the suspension of activities of UN agencies or NGOs due to these difficulties.
Canada has stated that it is already working on this possibility with other countries.
The information comes while a new truce is being negotiated that would include an exchange of hostages and a boost to the entry of aid.
- New Zealand designates the political wing of Hamas as a terrorist entity
.
The Government of New Zealand announced this Thursday the designation of the political wing of Hamas as a terrorist entity, as it had already classified its military part since 2010.
It has also issued sanctions against violent Israeli settlers.
ACT.29 FEB 2024 - 12:04
The country
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, during his speech at the UN Council this Thursday in Geneva (Switzerland).
/ Denis Balibouse / REUTERS
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights accuses Israel and Hamas of war crimes
The attacks by Hamas and associated armed groups in October 2023, but also the current siege of Gaza by Israel, constitute war crimes, says a report presented this Thursday by High Commissioner Volker Türk to the Human Rights Council of the UN.
“The blockade imposed on Gaza is collective punishment, it may amount to the use of famine as a weapon, and both of these things, committed intentionally, are war crimes,” Türk commented when presenting the report at the 55th session of the Council.
The document also considers the attacks and torture of civilians perpetrated by Hamas on October 7 and 8, as well as the indiscriminate launching of projectiles into Israeli cities during the current conflict, as war crimes.
The October attacks “were shocking and totally unjustifiable (...), but so is the brutality of the Israeli response,” the Austrian high commissioner stressed in his speech.
That response from Israel has included “an unprecedented level of killing and maiming among Gazan civilians, including against UN staff and journalists, a humanitarian crisis caused by restrictions on aid, and the displacement of at least three-quarters of the population of the Strip,” he stated.
The situation is “incomparably worse” than before, although Türk also recalled that the Palestinians have suffered “56 years of Israeli occupation with deeply discriminatory control systems.”
In the Gaza Strip the situation is aggravated by “16 years of blockade that in practice have left 2.2 million people in captivity, destroying the local economy,” he stated.
The high commissioner took advantage of his intervention to warn against a possible large-scale Israeli military operation in Rafah, in the extreme south of Gaza, since, in his opinion, if it materializes, "it will take the Strip to a new dystopian dimension." given that 1.5 million displaced Gazans are crowded into that area.
“A ground assault could potentially cause great loss of life, more atrocious crimes and new displacements to unsafe areas,” Türk warned.
“I cannot understand how such an operation could comply with the provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice,” said the high commissioner, referring to the ruling of the Hague court that urged Israel in January to take all necessary measures to prevent a genocide in Gaza.
Türk has also highlighted the serious situation in the West Bank, where since October 7 more than 7,000 Palestinians have been arbitrarily detained, 3,400 of them without trial in sight and more than 600 held incommunicado.
"Israeli leaders must accept the right of Palestinians to live in an independent State, and those of Palestine must take into account Israel's right to exist in peace and security," concluded the Austrian high commissioner. (EFE)
ACT.29 FEB 2024 - 11:32
The country
The death toll from the Israeli offensive in Gaza exceeds 30,000, according to Hamas
The Gaza Health Ministry, controlled by Hamas, reported this Thursday that the death toll from the Israeli offensive in Gaza has exceeded 30,000.
According to the organization, 30,035 people - most of them children and women - have died in the Strip since the military operation began on October 7, in response to the terrorist attack against Israeli territory carried out that day by the Islamist militia Hamas, in in which more than 1,100 people died, in addition to about 250 who were kidnapped and forcibly taken to the Palestinian enclave.
In the last 24 hours alone, 81 Palestinians have lost their lives in the Mediterranean enclave and 132 have been injured, according to the ministry statement.
The death toll refers to the victims who have arrived at area hospitals in the last few hours, but authorities estimate that there are many people under the rubble.
In fact, there are between 7,000 and 8,000 Palestinians trapped in the ruins of buildings demolished by the Israeli army's attacks.
According to Hamas, which has de facto controlled Gaza since 2007 and is considered a terrorist organization by the EU and the US, 70,457 people have been injured in this Palestinian territory since October 7.
Although the figures are from the Gaza Ministry of Health - this organization has published them in a statement collected by Reuters - the UN has validated the death toll published daily by the ministry.
The more than 30,000 deaths represent more than 1% of the enclave's population.
ACT.29 FEB 2024 - 11:36
The country
An Israeli attack kills more than 70 people waiting for a food delivery in Gaza, according to Hamas
Authorities in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip have reported that the death toll in an attack by Israeli soldiers on a group of people waiting to get food has reached 70, with 250 injured.
A source at the city's Al Shifa hospital puts the figure at 50 dead, while Kamal Adwan claims to have received 10 bodies and dozens of wounded.
Israel says it is investigating reports of the incident.
The Media Office of the Government of the Strip, controlled by Hamas since 2007, speaks in a statement of a “horrible massacre” among people who “were seeking sustenance in the southwest of Gaza City, where they went to obtain food and help.” after more than 700,000 people have been subjected to famine due to the siege of the occupation army.”
In the note he states that Israel committed the massacre intentionally.
“The attack was premeditated and intentional, in the context of the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the people of the Gaza Strip.
The occupation army knew that these victims had come to this area to obtain food and help, but they killed them in cold blood,” he states in the note.
“We hold the US administration, the international community, the occupation and international organizations responsible for the killing of civilians as they starve to death at the hands of the occupation,” the Gaza government statement added.
In the absence of an official count from the Gaza Ministry of Health, with these victims the deaths in the Strip would exceed 30,000, since yesterday 29,954 were confirmed since the war began on October 7.
In addition, it is estimated that more than 7,000 bodies are missing under the rubble.
ACT.29 FEB 2024 - 10:47
The country
Canada joins the US and is already working on launching humanitarian aid to Gaza from the air
Canada is already working on the possibility of launching humanitarian aid to Gaza from the air, a minister in Justin Trudeau's government has reported, according to information from the AP agency collected by the British newspaper
The Guardian
.
The information is known after US officials revealed that Joe Biden's administration is also studying the possibility, given the difficulties in distributing it by land due to the Israeli offensive, which is causing famine in the north of the Strip and after that the first cases of children dying of starvation were known.
According to information from the AP, Canada is already working on launching aid, after the Canadian Minister of International Development, Ahmed Hussen, stated that the Canadian government was studying different options for the distribution of aid.
One of the options, he said, was airdrops in alliance with other countries that share the idea, such as Jordan.
Last week, Hussein said that the distribution of aid to Gaza fell far short of the needs of the population and that the inspection processes that Israel carries out before allowing trucks to pass through, to ensure that they are not transporting weapons or material that could be, slowed down the process a lot.
He made these statements after visiting the Rafah border crossing, which connects Gaza with Egypt and the only one through which Israel allows supplies to pass.
ACT.29 FEB 2024 - 09:09