Over 100 Palestinians killed in Gaza, Israel blames stampede to get aid
More than 100 Palestinians were killed and hundreds more injured in the Gaza Strip early Thursday, Hamas-affiliated health officials said — which Israel blamed on a massive stampede of people desperately clamoring for aid.
About 104 people were killed while waiting for aid at the al-Nabusi roundabout to the west of Gaza City, Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said, accusing Israeli troops of opening fire.
“There were so many dead and wounded that medics were overwhelmed and could not cope with the severity of their injuries,” he said.
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari rejected the narrative, claiming Israeli troops only fired warning shots in an attempt to disperse the mob of “thousands” who rushed the aid trucks and “began violently pushing and trampling other Gazans to death, looting the humanitarian supplies.”
A video posted on social media that Reuters location-verified to the roundabout appeared to show several motionless bodies loaded on trucks.
Additional, unverified video showed bloodied victims in a truck, as well as medical personnel treating patients on a hospital floor, and shrouded bodies.
“We don’t want aid like this. We don’t want aid and bullets together. There are many martyrs,” a man could be heard saying.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the incident an “ugly massacre conducted by the Israeli occupation army on people who waited for aid trucks at the Nabulsi roundabout.”
Israeli officials, however, claimed that the bulk of the casualties were from a stampede when the desperate Gazans tried to rush the 38 aid trucks that arrived around 4:40 a.m.
Some of the victims were run over by the trucks in the chaos, the Times of Israel reported.
After the crowding, a smaller group approached the IDF troops stationed nearby, which prompted the soldiers to fire warning shots into the air and shoot at the individuals’ legs, the outlet claimed.
An investigation apparently found that the troops hit fewer than 10 Palestinians.
The IDF released drone footage that appeared to show a large mass of people swarming the aid trucks, some of which pushed past the crowd and kept going.
The military probe also revealed that some of the trucks made it farther north, where they were reportedly attacked and looted by a group of armed men, the Times of Israel said.
Hagari said that at no point did Israel conduct a strike at the crowd, with the IDF focused on helping the aid truck back up and securing the safety of the humanitarian workers.
“The IDF was there carrying out a humanitarian aid operation, to secure the humanitarian corridor, and allow the aid convoy to reach its distribution point, so that the humanitarian aid could reach Gazan civilians in the north who are in need,” he said.
“Our war is against Hamas, not against the people of Gaza,” Hagari added.
With Post wires
