Hamas accuses Israel of attacking civilians who were desperate for food, while the IDF claims that the victims were “pushed, trampled and run over by trucks”.
More than one hundred Palestinians died this Thursday in the Gaza Strip in the midst of an operation to deliver humanitarian aid. Hamas accuses Israel of attacking civilians who were desperate for food, while the IDF claims that the victims were “pushed, trampled and run over by trucks”.
So far, and according to the spokesman for the Hamas Ministry of Health, Ashraf Al Qudra, 104 people have died and 760 have been injured.
Images of the tragic operation led by a dozen trucks loaded with humanitarian aid were captured by a drone, showing thousands of Palestinians rushing in search of food.
That sequence, which went viral on social media shortly after its release, shows thousands of people running from one side to the other, advancing towards the trucks. Minutes later, also on social networks, photos of dead Palestinians and crossed versions of how they died were repeated.
The shocking video was released by IDF spokesperson Avichay Adraee. “Aerial scenes show the course of the campaign to bring humanitarian aid to the northern Gaza Strip and document how Palestinian crowds intercepted trucks and looted them, causing dozens of deaths as a result of severe overcrowding and trampling,” the spokesman said.
Hamas denounces that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attacked Palestinians. Sources in that country confirmed that their soldiers felt “threatened” and shot at the Palestinians but denied responsibility.
According to a doctor at Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City, soldiers shot at “thousands of citizens” who were rushing towards aid trucks.
“The death toll from the massacre on Al Rashid Street is now 104 dead and 760 wounded,” Hamas Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al Qudra said in a statement.
Several witnesses told the AFP news agency of seeing thousands of people rushing towards humanitarian aid trucks arriving at a roundabout in the west of Gaza City.
For its part, and in a brief statement, the IDF noted that “this morning, humanitarian aid trucks entered northern Gaza, residents surrounded the trucks and looted the supplies being delivered.”
“As a result of pushing, trampling and being run over by trucks, dozens of Gazans were killed and injured,” they noted.
The war unleashed after the brutal Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7 is already the deadliest of the five conflicts between Israel and the Islamist movement, which took power in Gaza in 2007.
The mediating countries say they hope for a truce before the start of Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month that begins on the night of March 10 or 11, but so far they have not reported concrete progress.
