Global anger as Israel kills over 100 Palestinians waiting for aid
Reactions have poured in from all over the world after Israeli troops on Thursday opened fire on Palestinians at a food aid distribution site in northern Gaza, killing more than 100 people.
Gaza’s Health Ministry called it a “massacre” and said 112 people were killed and more than 750 others wounded.
The Israeli military claimed a “stampede” occurred when thousands of Gazans surrounded the convoy of 38 aid trucks, leading to dozens of deaths and injuries, including some who were run over.
However, an Israeli source acknowledged troops had opened fire on the crowd, believing it “posed a threat”.
Many countries have condemned the incident as “genocide and crime against humanity” and have called for investigation into the tragedy.
Iran lashed out at the US and the Europeans for their silence over the “genocide” in Gaza.
“More than 100 Palestinian citizens who were waiting in line to receive humanitarian aid on al-Rashid Street in Gaza were martyred, more than 800 people were injured due to the barbaric attack by the Zionist regime,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani wrote on X.
‘Another crime’
Turkey accused Israel of committing “another crime against humanity”.
“The fact that Israel... this time targets innocent civilians in a queue for humanitarian aid, is evidence that (Israel) aims consciously and collectively to destroy the Palestinian people”, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro denounced what he called a “genocide” of the Palestinian people and suspended purchases of weapons from Israel, a key supplier of his country’s security forces.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the incident and was “appalled by the tragic human toll of the conflict”, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
France’s Foreign Ministry said “the fire by Israeli soldiers against civilians trying to access food is unjustifiable”.
Writing on the social media platform X that Palestinian “civilians have been targeted by Israeli soldiers”, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his “strongest condemnation” of the killings.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares wrote on X, “The unacceptable nature of what happened in Gaza, with dozens of Palestinian civilians dead as they were waiting for food, underlines the urgency of a cease-fire”.
EU decries ‘carnage’
European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell denounced the deaths as “totally unacceptable”.
“I am horrified by news of yet another carnage among civilians in Gaza desperate for humanitarian aid,” he said on X.
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry condemned “in the strongest terms the heinous massacre committed by the Israeli occupation”, calling for “urgent international action” to halt the fighting in Gaza. Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry condemned the deaths and reiterated “the need to reach an immediate cease-fire”.
China shocked
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Chinese Mao Ning said China was shocked by the incident and strongly condemned the killing of Palestinians during an aid delivery.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said her country was “horrified by today’s catastrophe in Gaza and the ongoing humanitarian crisis that has led to it”.
US President Joe Biden – whose country provides billions of dollars in military aid to Israel – said Washington was checking “two competing versions” of the incident.
The United States blocked Algeria’s request to the UN Security Council demanding the body to issue a statement blaming the Israeli army for the massacre carried out on Thursday.
The US was the only country out of 15 to not back Algeria’s statement on the massacre in Al-Rashid Street.