[News] Israeli 'massacre' kills over 100 Palestinians seeking food in Gaza City

[Anti-Imperialist News]

middleeasteye.net
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/war-gaza-israeli-massacre-kills-dozens-looking-food-gaza-city>
Israeli 'massacre' kills over 100 Palestinians seeking food in Gaza City
By Mohammed al-Hajjar in Gaza City, occupied Palestine and Nader Durgham in
Beirut
February 29, 2024
------------------------------

Witnesses describe to MEE being indiscriminately attacked as they gathered
around an aid convoy
[image: Man in al-Shifa Hospital looking over the shrouds enveloping the
bodies following the attack (Mohammed al-Hajjar/MEE).]

Man in al-Shifa Hospital looking over the shrouds enveloping the bodies
following the attack (Mohammed al-Hajjar/MEE).

Published date: 29 February 2024 09:56 GMT | Last update: 2 hours 9 mins ago


At least 104 Palestinians were killed and hundreds more wounded when Israeli
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel> forces fired on people at
an aid convoy in Gaza City’s al-Rasheed Street on Thursday, the Palestinian
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/palestine> health ministry said,
calling the incident a "massacre".

Residents of Gaza City had gathered seeking food, with the area completely
cut off from aid by Israeli forces. NGOs and UN experts have voiced fears
of famine in northern Gaza and there have been reports of people, including
babies, dying of hunger.

Fares Afana, head of the ambulance service at Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital,
said
<https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-news-02-29-2024-f9b5a62a80d8b83eac4946d3c85af58b>
medics found “dozens or hundreds” of bodies lying on the ground once they
reached the scene. He said some wounded had to be carried to hospitals on
donkey carts as there were not enough ambulances to take all the dead and
wounded.

[image: A wounded man rests on a mattress on the floor of al-Shifa Hospital
following the Israeli attack on Gazans waiting for aid (Mohammed
al-Hajjar/MEE).]
A wounded man rests on a mattress on the floor of al-Shifa Hospital
following the Israeli attack on Gazans waiting for aid (Mohammed
al-Hajjar/MEE).

Hospitals in northern Gaza, most of which are out of commission because of
repeated Israeli attacks, are reportedly unable
<https://aje.io/gs2k6y?update=2739790> to deal with the large influx of
patients.

Ahmad, a 31-year-old who only gave his first name, told Middle East Eye
that aid trucks reached the street at 4am, and that Israeli forces fired at
people trying to reach the convoy. Ahmad was shot in the arm and the leg.

“The shooting was indiscriminate, people shot in the head, in the foot, in
the stomach,” he said. “One man was martyred, then run over by the tank.”

The Israeli military accused the Palestinians of being responsible for a
mass crush, saying
<https://twitter.com/IDF/status/1763192520790458664>: "residents
surrounded the trucks and looted the supplies being delivered. As a result
of the pushing, trampling and being run over by the trucks, dozens of
Gazans were killed and injured." It released aerial footage
<https://twitter.com/idfonline/status/1763174751042695313> showing
desperate Palestinians gathering around the trucks.

However, alongside witness testimony, video footage
<https://twitter.com/Seamus_Malek/status/1763194173534924993> clearly shows
heavy gunfire during the incident. Israeli sources told AFP that troops
fired at the Palestinians, with one saying the soldiers believed the crowd
"posed a threat".

[image: Wounded boy sleeps on a bed in al-Shifa hours after the attack
(Mohammed al-Hajjar/MEE).]
Wounded boy sleeps on a bed in al-Shifa hours after the attack (Mohammed
al-Hajjar/MEE).

Kamel Abu Nahel, whose foot was ran over by one of the trucks, said: "If
you want to send us aid like that, don’t send it."

“We are dying to get flour for our children," he added.

The attack comes as the Palestinian death toll in the war surpassed 30,000,
according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Reacting to the attack, Oxfam said it was “appalled
<https://twitter.com/newsfromoxfam/status/1763146382750163139>” by the
reports.

“Israel deliberately targeting civilians after starving them is a gross
violation of international humanitarian laws and our humanity,” the
international aid group said. “The risk of genocide is real.”

[image: image.gif]Ammar Helo, a 30-year-old Palestinian who survived the
attack, told MEE he will still go down whenever aid trucks arrive, despite
the risk to his life.

“We do not have bread, we do not have flour, we have been eating animal
food,” he said. Survivors told MEE even animal feed was running out in the
north.

“I swear, all of Gaza is destroyed, I swear an earthquake from God would
have been better.”
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