Citing Gaza health authorities, media reports say Israeli forces yesterday shot dead more than 100 Palestinians as they waited for an aid delivery, but Israel blamed the deaths on crowds that surrounded aid trucks, saying victims had been trampled or run over.
Reuters, citing Palestinian health officials, reports that at least 112 people were killed and more than 280 wounded in the incident near Gaza City.
The loss of civilian lives was reportedly the biggest in weeks.
Al Jazeera says more than 100 Palestinians were killed after Israeli soldiers and tanks fired on a crowd of thousands waiting for desperately needed food assistance.
Israel has reportedly said that its forces fired at the crowd after aid trucks were stormed, but humanitarian groups have said that Israeli restrictions on food assistance to the north of Gaza have created unbearable conditions that set the stage for the incident.
CNN reports that the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said 112 people were killed and more than 760 injured in the incident, one of the deadliest since the war in Gaza began.
CNN notes that it is unable to independently confirm the figures and the Israeli military has given a different account of the circumstances.
UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said life is “draining out of Gaza at terrifying speed”, as the death toll from Israel’s assault on the strip, one of the most destructive in modern history, passed 30,000 people, the majority of them women and children.
According to Reuters, Hamas said the incident could jeopardize talks in Qatar aimed at securing a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages it is holding.
When asked if he thought it would complicate the talks, U.S. President Joe Biden reportedly said: “I know it will.”
The Associated Press (AP) says that according to health officials in Gaza, more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 70,000 wounded in the Gaza Strip since the Israel’s war on Hamas began nearly five months ago.
