A week after the scene of deadly chaos, the Israeli army continues to defend its version.
The IDF returned this Friday to the tragedy that occurred on February 29 in Gaza around a humanitarian aid convoy, during which 115 people were killed according to the Hamas authorities, a report that Le Parisien was however unable to verify. independently.
The “examination” of the event shows that Israeli soldiers “precisely shot several suspects,” Israeli forces assured.
“The command's review revealed that (Israeli) troops did not fire on the humanitarian convoy, but did shoot at a number of suspects who approached (Israeli soldiers) and presented a threat,” the army wrote in a statement.
Until then, Israel had admitted to having carried out "limited shooting", but had already pleaded that its soldiers had felt "threatened" by a hungry crowd who would have tried to loot the convoy.
“Eliminate the threat”
In this new statement, the IDF asserts that “while the trucks were heading towards the distribution centers, a violent gathering of approximately 12,000 Gazans formed around them, who looted the equipment they carried.”
“During this looting, civilians were seriously injured and the trucks crushed them,” she added, quoted by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
It would be during this “gathering” that “dozens of Gaza residents approached, at a distance of a few meters, the army forces and thus constituted a real threat to the forces present”.
The soldiers then allegedly shot at some suspects to scare them away, and as they approached, they fired “to eliminate the threat,” according to the army.
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Israeli forces added that "the incident will continue to be investigated", assuring "to deploy numerous efforts to allow the transfer of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip", while Tel Aviv is regularly accused of slowing down this transport, at a time when the population is threatened by famine.
Just after the tragedy, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari had already affirmed that his army had “secured the humanitarian corridor”.
The international community reacted strongly, calling on the Israeli government to get to the bottom of what happened at the scene.