On Saturday, a food aid distribution in Gaza turned tragic again as Hamas said 19 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, a charge the army rejected.
The Hamas health ministry initially said nine people were killed by “tank and artillery fire from the Israeli occupation army” during a planned aid distribution at a roundabout. Kuwait, on the outskirts of Gaza City, before the Palestinian Islamist movement’s press office reported new casualties: 19 dead and 23 wounded.
According to the IDF, the convoy was “looted by hundreds of Gazans”
The Israeli army denies shooting at Palestinians awaiting the distribution. “Reports that Israeli forces attacked dozens of Gazans near an aid convoy are incorrect,” the army said in a statement. According to the “initial elements,” “there was no air strike on the convoy, nor was there any shooting by (Israeli) forces on people near the aid convoy,” she said.
The army added that the soldiers were escorting the same aid convoy that it said was intercepted and then “looted by hundreds of Gazans.”
Civil defense spokesman in Gaza Mahmoud Basal reported “shooting against civilians,” adding that the wounded were taken to Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, also called Baptist Hospital. He described “very serious injuries, including shrapnel.”
Similar accusations in mid-March
On March 14, the Hamas Health Ministry reported 20 dead and more than a hundred wounded from Israeli fire in similar circumstances at the same roundabout. The next day, the Israeli army said the shooting was by “armed Palestinians”, denying the accusations.
On February 29, an aid distribution turned tragic in western Gaza City, killing 120 people, according to Hamas, which accused the army of opening fire on the crowd.
The army said its soldiers “fired at a number of suspects who were approaching (them) and posing a threat.” She assured that as a result of the stampede, “dozens were killed and wounded.”
The vast majority of Gaza’s 2.4 million people are at risk of starvation, according to the UN. The situation is especially serious for the 300 thousand people remaining in the north of the territory, where aid delivery is even more difficult.
Source: Le Parisien
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