Death toll rose to 112 after Israeli troops opened fire on hundreds of Gazans waiting for food aid near Gaza City, on Thursday (Feb 29), according to Hamas-run health ministry officials. While the death toll in the Palestinian enclave amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, according to the Gaza health ministry, crossed 30,000.
‘A massacre’
The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the attack on Gazans who were waiting for food aid and called it a cold-blooded “massacre.”
WATCH | Israel War: At least 104 killed, over 700 injured; Palestinian officials accuse Israel of attack
After the initial reports of 50 people being killed during the attack, the Palestinian foreign ministry confirming the incident said at least 70 Palestinians were killed and 250 others wounded.
The death toll was later revised to 112, with about 760 injured, by the Hamas-run health ministry after it said that eight more people had been confirmed dead as their bodies arrived at al-Shifa Hospital.
A witness told AFP the violence unfolded at the Nabulsi roundabout in the western part of Gaza City as thousands of Palestinians rushed towards the trucks carrying food aid.
“Trucks full of aid came too close to some army tanks that were in the area and the crowd, thousands of people, just stormed the trucks,” said the witness, who declined to be named for safety reasons.
The witness added, “The soldiers fired at the crowd as people came too close to the tanks.”
“We went to get flour. The Israeli army shot at us. There are many martyrs on the ground and until this moment we are withdrawing them. There is no first aid,” another witness told Al Jazeera.
The death toll is expected to top 100, Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra had previously said in a statement.
It added, “Medical teams are unable to deal with the volume and type of injuries arriving at Al-Shifa Medical Complex as a result of weak medical and human capabilities.”
Gunfire caused 10 out of hundreds of casualties: IDF probe
The Israeli army said that humanitarian aid was being delivered to the northern Gaza Strip when a “violent gathering” erupted around the trucks and Palestinians looted the equipment. Israeli gunfire caused some 10 casualties out of the hundreds reported, according to Israel Defence Forces’ (IDF), initial probe into the incident suggested.
According to Israeli forces, there was a stampede as Palestinians in the area rushed towards the aid trucks.
Subsequently, a small group of Palestinians began to move toward IDF troops stationed there reportedly prompting its soldiers to fire warning shots in the air and at the legs of those who were getting closer.
The incident, as per Israel, began around 4:00 am (local time) when some 30 trucks carrying humanitarian aid arrived in the Rimal neighbourhood and thousands of Palestinians rushed to the trucks passing an IDF checkpoint.
Israeli forces also claim that some Palestinians were run over by the trucks and that some vehicles managed to continue further north where armed men allegedly opened fire at the convoy near Rimal and looted it.
The UN estimates that 2.2 million people in Gaza amid Israel’s relentless military campaign to eliminate Hamas are threatened with famine, particularly in the northern part of the Palestinian enclave where destruction, fighting and looting make the delivery of food nearly impossible.
A report by the Times of Israel citing a military source said after the incident some people from the crowd began moving towards Israeli soldiers stationed in the area to coordinate entry of aid trucks to northern Gaza. The source told the Israeli media that troops opened fire at the crowd after feeling “endangered”.
Death toll in Gaza crosses 30,000: Gaza health ministry
At least 30,035 people, mostly women and children, have been killed and 70,457 wounded in Gaza amid the ongoing war between Israel and Palestinian militant group since October 7, said the Hamas-run health ministry, on Thursday (Feb 29).
At least 1,200 people were killed in Israel after Hamas launched its October 7 attack on southern Israel and more than 250 people were taken as hostages, according to the Israeli officials.
(With inputs from agencies)
Disclaimer: WION takes utmost care to accurately and responsibly report ongoing developments on the Israel-Palestine conflict after the Hamas attacks. However, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.
