A food aid distribution in Gaza once again turned into tragedy this Saturday, March 23, when Hamas claimed that 19 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli fire, an accusation denied by the army.
The Hamas Health Ministry initially announced that nine people had been killed by “tank gunfire and shellfire from the Israeli occupation army” during a planned aid distribution at the Kuwait roundabout outside Gaza City, before the service press release of the Palestinian Islamist movement. reported a new toll of 19 dead and 23 injured.
“Incorrect” information according to the IDF
The Israeli army denied having fired on Palestinians who were waiting for this distribution.
“Reports claiming that Israeli forces attacked dozens of Gazans near an aid convoy are incorrect,” the military said in a statement. According to the “first elements”, “there was no air attack against the convoy, nor shooting by the (Israeli) forces against people near the aid convoy,” he stated.
The army added that the soldiers were accompanying the same aid convoy that it said was intercepted and then “looted by hundreds of Gazans.”
A civil defense spokesman in Gaza, Mahmoud Basal, reported “shots fired at civilians” and added that the wounded were taken to the Al Ahli Arab hospital, also called the Baptist hospital. He described “very serious injuries, some of them from shrapnel.”
Aid distributions already targeted
On March 14, the Hamas Health Ministry reported 20 dead and more than a hundred wounded by “Israeli fire” in similar circumstances, at the same roundabout. The next day, the Israeli army spoke of shooting by “armed Palestinians,” denying these accusations.
On February 29, an aid distribution turned into a tragedy in western Gaza City, leaving 120 dead according to Hamas, which accused the army of opening fire on the crowd.
The military said its soldiers “shot at several suspects who approached (them) and presented a threat.” He assured that a stampede left “dozens of dead and injured.”
According to the UN, the vast majority of the 2.4 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip are threatened by hunger. The situation is especially serious for the 300,000 people who remain in the north of the territory, where the delivery of aid is even more difficult.
Source: BFM TV
