UN says large number of Palestinians shot in Gaza aid incident
A United Nations team and medical officials have reported seeing “a large number” of gunshot wounds among Palestinians in Gaza after Israeli troops opened fire near an aid convoy, which has triggered global condemnation.
Their claims confirm numerous testimonies by witnesses that Israeli gunfire killed and wounded scores of Palestinians desperately seeking food aid on Thursday, contradicting Israel’s initial claims people were hurt due to a stampede and trampling.
Israeli troops opened fire as Palestinian civilians scrambled for food supplies during a chaotic incident in Gaza City that the Health Ministry in the Palestinian territory said killed 115 people and wounded more than 750.
The Israeli military has claimed that a “stampede” occurred when thousands of Gazans surrounded the aid convoy.
However, an Israeli source acknowledged troops had opened fire on the crowd, believing it “posed a threat”.
On Friday a UN team visited some of the wounded from the aid incident, in Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital, and saw a “large number of gunshot wounds”, UN chief Antonio Guterres’s spokesman said.
The hospital received 70 of the dead, and around 200 wounded were still there during the team’s visit, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Hossam Abu Safiya, director of Gaza City’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, said all the casualties it admitted were hit by “bullets and shrapnel from occupation forces,” a reference to Israel.
The aid convoy deaths helped push the number of Palestinian death toll in Gaza to 30,320, mostly women and children, according to the Health Ministry.
Dying from malnutrition
On Saturday, the Health Ministry also said thousands of people in north Gaza “are at risk of dying from dehydration and malnutrition,” and the World Health Organization said it had delivered treatment for 50 acutely malnourished children in the north.
The ministry on Friday reported a total of 10 children had died of “malnutrition and dehydration”.
Meanwhile, Hamas’s military wing said Friday that seven more captives held by the resistance group had died because of Israeli military operations.
Air-dropping relief supplies
US President Joe Biden has said his military would start air-dropping relief supplies into the Palestinian territory.
Biden said Washington would begin deliveries from the sky “in the coming days”.
The International Rescue Committee said the very fact airdrops were “being considered is testament to the serious access challenges in Gaza”.
But the group said parachuting aid is not the solution and distracts “time and effort from proven solutions to help at scale”.
The United Nations has particularly cited restrictions on access to northern Gaza, where residents have been reduced to eating animal fodder and even leaves.
Hisham Abu Eid, 28, of Zeitun in the Gaza City area, said he got two bags of flour from an aid distribution and gave one to his neighbors.
“Everyone is suffering from famine. Aid that is getting into Gaza is rare and not enough for even a small number of people. Famine is killing people,” Abu Eid said.
Mediators have also been trying to secure a cease-fire, and Biden on Friday said he was “hoping” it could still be reached by the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is due to start on March 10 or 11.