‘Heinous’: Deadly Israeli attack on Gaza aid-seekers condemned

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Written by northsouth

Category: MENA

Published: 01 March 2024

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GAZA STRIP - Palestinian leaders and neighbouring countries have condemned Israel’s targeting of unarmed Palestinians collecting aid in Gaza, in an attack that has killed more than 100 people.

The office of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said an “ugly massacre conducted by the Israeli occupation army” had taken place, following reports on Thursday that Israeli forces opened fire on people receiving aid southwest of Gaza City.

The Gaza Ministry of Health said at least 112 people were killed and more than 750 wounded, and called on the international community to “urgently intervene” to forge a ceasefire as “the only way to protect civilians”.

“The killing of this large number of innocent civilian victims who risked their livelihood is an integral part of the genocidal war committed by the occupation government against our people,” Abbas’s office was quoted by the Wafa news agency as saying.

“Israeli occupation authorities bear full responsibility and will be held accountable before international courts.”

Palestinian group Hamas called the attack “a heinous massacre added to the long series of massacres committed by the criminal Zionist entity against our Palestinian people”.

In a statement, the group, which is fighting Israel in Gaza, said the deadly attack on aid-seekers was “unprecedented in the history of war crimes” and was part of Israel’s “war of starvation” against Palestinians in the enclave.

It called on the United Nations Security Council and Arab states to take decisions obligating Israel to stop its mass killings, ethnic cleansing, genocide and violations of international law in Gaza.

Hamas also said it holds Israel and the United States administration under President Joe Biden responsible for the escalation of the war.

Western ‘complicity’

After news of the attack, the Israeli army claimed that civilians in Gaza had attacked the aid trucks and dozens of people had been trampled – although this was disputed by witness accounts.

“At some point, the trucks were overwhelmed and the people driving the trucks, which were Gazan civilian drivers, ploughed into the crowds of people, ultimately killing, my understanding is, tens of people,” Israeli government spokesperson Avi Hyman told reporters.

“It’s obviously a tragedy, but we’re not sure of the specifics quite yet.”

Palestinian novelist Yusri al-Ghoul, who witnessed to the incident, spoke to Al Jazeera from Gaza City’s Shati Camp.

“They [Israel] are always saying their propaganda … I heard them when they are insulting us and shouting at the Palestinians, even the children … [saying] we will kill you every day,” he said.

“[If it was because of overcrowding], why were the knees and elbows being shot? … Why did the Israeli tanks target the Palestinian civilians?”

The White House said it was looking into reports of Israeli fire on Palestinians, describing it as a “serious incident”.

“We mourn the loss of innocent life and recognise the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, where innocent Palestinians are just trying to feed their families,” a White House National Security Council spokesperson said in a statement on Thursday.

Biden later said that Washington was checking “two competing versions of what happened”, before adding that the killings would make negotiations over a ceasefire in Gaza more difficult. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the US has asked Israel to provide answers.

The United Nations’ aid chief Martin Griffiths said he was appalled at the “reported killing and injury of hundreds of people”.

“Even after close to five months of brutal hostilities, Gaza still has the ability to shock us,” Griffiths said. “Life is draining out of Gaza at terrifying speed.”

International condemnation

Egypt, which neighbours Israel and the southern Gaza Strip, meanwhile condemned the attack.

“We condemn the inhumane Israeli targeting of … unarmed Palestinian civilians in the Nabulsi roundabout in the northern Gaza,” Egypt’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “We consider targeting peaceful citizens rushing to pick up their share of aid a shameful crime and a flagrant violation of international law.”

Jordan’s foreign ministry also released a statement, saying, “We condemn the Israeli occupation forces’ brutal targeting of the gathering of Palestinians who were waiting for aid on the Nabulsi roundabout near Al-Rashid Street in Gaza.”

Saudi Arabia also joined in the condemnation. A foreign ministry statement said Riyadh rejected “violations of international humanitarian law from any side and under any circumstance”, and called for the international community to compel Israel to open secure humanitarian corridors into Gaza.

For her part, the Belgian deputy prime minister, Petra De Sutter, said she was “horrified by the news of today’s massacre”.

“Murdering people queueing for essential humanitarian aid?” De Sutter wrote in a social media post. “This is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and fully goes against the [International Court of Justice’s] provisional measures.”

Mustafa Barghouti, the secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, called the attack another “horrible crime” committed by Israel.

“These were civilians who are starving because Israel has been depriving them from food for months and does not allow any supplies to them for more than a month now,” he told Al Jazeera from Moscow.

“And then they try to justify it by saying that Palestinians are responsible for being killed by the same Israeli soldiers? It’s unbelievable.”

Barghouti also decried “the silence” of Western countries and blamed their governments for being “complicit with these crimes and allow them to happen”.

“This should stop immediately,” he said. “It cannot stop without an immediate, permanent, complete and total ceasefire.”

Over 30,000 Palestinian deaths in Gaza as witnesses say IDF fire on crowd waiting for aid

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Written by northsouth

Category: MENA

Published: 29 February 2024

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RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli troops fired on a crowd of Palestinians waiting for aid in Gaza City on Thursday, witnesses said. More than 100 people were killed, bringing the death toll since the start of the Israel-Hamas war to more than 30,000, according to health officials.

Hospital officials initially reported an Israeli strike on the crowd, but witnesses later said Israeli troops opened fire as people pulled flour and canned goods off of trucks.

The Israeli military declined to provide an on-the-record statement about the role of troops in the incident.

Gaza City and the surrounding areas in the enclave's north were the first targets of Israel’s air, sea and ground offensive, launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. The area has suffered widespread devastation and has been largely isolated during the conflict. Trucks carrying food reached northern Gaza this week, the first major aid delivery to the area in a month, officials said Wednesday.

Aid groups say it has become nearly impossible to deliver humanitarian assistance in most of Gaza because of the difficulty of coordinating with the Israeli military, ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of public order, with crowds of desperate people overwhelming aid convoys. The U.N. says a quarter of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians face starvation; around 80% have fled their homes.

Kamel Abu Nahel, who was being treated for a gunshot wound at Shifa Hospital, said he and others went to the distribution point in the middle of the night because they heard there would be a delivery of food. “We've been eating animal feed for two months,” he said.

He said Israeli troops opened fire on the crowd, causing it to scatter, with some people hiding under cars. After the shooting stopped, they went back to the trucks, and the soldiers opened fire again. He was shot in the leg and fell over, and then a truck ran over his leg as it sped off, he said.

Medics arriving at the scene on Thursday found “dozens or hundreds” lying on the ground, according to Fares Afana, the head of the ambulance service at Kamal Adwan Hospital. He said there were not enough ambulances to collect all the dead and wounded and that some were being brought to hospitals in donkey carts.

In addition to at least 104 people killed, around 760 were wounded, Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said. The Health Ministry described it as a “massacre.”

Separately, the Health Ministry said the Palestinian death toll from the war has climbed to 30,035, with another 70,457 wounded. It does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its figures but says women and children make up around two-thirds of those killed.

The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government in Gaza, maintains detailed records of casualties. Its counts from previous wars have largely matched those of the U.N., independent experts and even Israel’s own tallies.

The Hamas attack into southern Israel that ignited the war killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and the militants seized around 250 hostages. Hamas and other militants are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of about 30 more, after releasing most of the other captives during a November cease-fire.

The increasing alarm over hunger across Gaza has fueled international calls for another cease-fire, and the U.S., Egypt and Qatar are working to secure a deal between Israel and Hamas for a pause in fighting and the release of some of the hostages.

Mediators hope to reach an agreement before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan starts around March 10. But so far, Israel and Hamas have remained far apart in public on their demands.

Meanwhile, U.N. officials have warned of further mass casualties if Israel follows through on vows to attack the southernmost city of Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has taken refuge. They also say a Rafah offensive could decimate what remains of aid operations.

Several hundred thousand Palestinians are believed to remain in northern Gaza despite Israeli orders to evacuate the area in October, and many have been reduced to eating animal fodder to survive. The U.N. says one in 6 children under 2 in the north suffer from acute malnutrition and wasting.

COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of Palestinian civilian affairs, said around 50 aid trucks entered nothern Gaza this week. It was unclear who delivered the aid. Some countries have meanwhile resorted to airdrops in recent days.

The World Food Program said earlier this month that it was pausing deliveries to the north because of the growing chaos, after desperate Palestinians emptied a convoy while it was en route.

Since launching its assault on Gaza following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, Israel has barred entry of food, water, medicine and other supplies except for a trickle of aid entering the south from Egypt at the Rafah crossing and Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing. Despite international calls to allow in more aid, the number of supply trucks is far less than the 500 that came in daily before the war.

COGAT said Wednesday that Israel does not impose limits on the amount of aid entering. Israel has blamed U.N. agencies for the bottleneck, saying hundreds of trucks are waiting on the Palestinian side of Kerem Shalom for aid workers to collect them.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Wednesday countered by saying large trucks entering Gaza have to be unloaded and reloaded onto smaller ones, but there aren’t enough of them and there’s a lack of security to distribute aid in Gaza.

Hamas-run police in Gaza stopped protecting convoys after Israeli strikes on them near the crossing.

Quarter of Gaza’s population one step from famine as aid trucks are looted, UN

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Written by northsouth

Category: MENA

Published: 28 February 2024

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By EDITH M. LEDERER

THE UNITED NATIONS - At least one quarter of Gaza’s population – 576,000 people – are one step away from famine and virtually the entire population desperately needs food resulting in some aid trucks being shot at, looted and overwhelmed by hungry people, top U.N. officials said Tuesday.

The officials from the U.N. humanitarian office and the U.N.’s food and agriculture organizations painted a dire picture of all 2.3 million people in Gaza facing crisis levels of food insecurity or worse, and civil order breaking down especially in the north where food and other humanitarian supplies are scarce.

And as grim as the picture is today, U.N. humanitarian coordinator Ramesh Ramasingham told the U.N. Security Council that “there is every possibility for further deterioration.”

He said that in addition to a quarter of Gaza’s population close to famine, 1 in 6 children under the age of two in northern Gaza are suffering from “acute malnutrition and wasting,” where the body becomes emaciated.

Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Program, said that is “the worst level of child malnutrition anywhere in the world.” And he warned that “If nothing changes, a famine is imminent in northern Gaza” -- the initial target of Israel’s military offensive following Hamas’ surprise attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7 that killed some 1,200 people and led to about 250 being taken captive.

In the latest example of the breakdown of civil order, Skau said WFP resumed deliveries to northern Gaza for the first time in three weeks on Feb. 18, and hoped to send 10 trucks a day for seven days to address immediate food needs and provide some reassurance to people that sufficient food would be arriving.

But on both Feb. 18 and Feb. 19, he said, WFP convoys faced delays at checkpoints, gunfire and other violence and the looting of food.

“At their destination, they were overwhelmed by desperately hungry people,” he said.

Skau said “the breakdown in civil order, driven by sheer desperation, is preventing the safe distribution of aid – and we have a duty to protect our staff.”

As a result, he said, WFP has suspended aid deliveries to the north until conditions are in place to ensure the security of its staff and the people receiving assistance.

Maurizio Martina, the Food and Agriculture Organization’s deputy director general, described the horrific state of farmland, greenhouses, bakeries and irrigation systems that are essential to produce, process and distribute food.

Since Oct. 9 – two days after the Hamas attacks – “the government of Israel’s reinforced blockade has included stopping or restricting food, electricity and fuel supplies, as well as commercial goods,” he said.

This has affected the entire food supply chain in different ways, Martina said.

As examples, he said, severe restrictions on fuel shipments are crippling water supplies and the functioning of desalination plants, with the water supply at only 7% of pre-October levels. Fuel shortages have also crippled the production and delivery of food and electricity, and seriously hampered the ability of bakeries to produce bread, he said.

Martina said the collapse of agricultural production in the north is already happening and in the most likely scenario will be complete by May. And as of Feb. 15, over 46% of all crop land in Gaza was assessed to be damaged, he said.

The FAO official presented more alarming figures from Israel’s offensive -- a high number of animal shelters and sheep and dairy farms destroyed, over one-quarter of water wells destroyed, and 339 hectares of greenhouses destroyed. And he said the war has also heavily impacted the harvest of olives and citrus fruits, a key Palestinian money earner.

As for animals, Martina said, many livestock owners report substantial losses, all poultry have likely been slaughtered, and as many as 65% of calves and 70% of beef cattle are assumed to have died.

Israel’s deputy U.N. ambassador Brett Miller told the council that while fighting Hamas it is doing “all it can to care for civilians,” and is working constantly to ensure the entry of humanitarian aid from numerous countries and U.N. agencies.

Since the Oct. 7 attacks, he said, Israel has facilitated the delivery of 254,000 tons of humanitarian aid including 165,000 tons of food. “There is absolutely no limit – and I repeat there is no limit – to the amount of humanitarian aid that can be sent to the civilian population of Gaza,” he said.

Miller countered that 20 bakeries throughout Gaza are producing over 2 million pita breads a day.

He accused the U.N. of refusing to deliver aid to northern Gaza, and some U.N. officials of trying to shift the blame to Israel.

In recent days, Miller said, 508 trucks have been waiting to cross into Gaza with Israeli approval. “So where is the U.N. and its aid agencies? How can it be that Israel is libelously held responsible for a situation that is clearly the U.N.’s fault?” he asked.

U.N. humanitarian coordinator Ramasingham, WFP’s Skau and FAO’s Martina all had a similar response: The first step to eliminating the looming threat of famine is a ceasefire so humanitarian workers can enter Gaza.

“If nothing is done, we fear widespread famine in Gaza is almost inevitable,” Ramasingham said, and the Palestinian death toll which has reached almost 30,000 “will have many more victims.” That figure from the Gaza Health Ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants, though the U.N. says the majority are women and children.