A United Nations team and medical officials reported finding “a large number” of gunshot wounds among Palestinians in Gaza after Israeli troops opened fire near an aid convoy, sparking global condemnation and calls for justice.
Their claims confirm numerous reports that Israeli fire killed and injured dozens of Palestinians desperate for food aid on Thursday, contradicting Israel’s initial claims that people were injured due to a stampede and trampling.
At least 117 Palestinians were killed and more than 750 injured in the “flour massacre” at the Nabulsi roundabout, southwest of Gaza City, after Israeli troops opened fire on the crowd.
A U.N. team visited some of the wounded at Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital on Friday and found a “large number of gunshot wounds,” the head of state’s spokesman said. UN, Antonio Guterres, Stéphane Dujarric.
The hospital received 70 of the dead, and about 200 injured were still there when the team visited, Dujarric said.
He did not know that the team was examining those killed, but said that “from what they saw in terms of live patients receiving treatment, there were a large number of gunshot wounds.”
Georgios Petropoulos of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said he saw people with gunshot wounds during the deadly attack.
“We saw people with gunshot wounds. We saw amputees and children as young as 12 who were injured yesterday.”
Our team leader #Gaza talks about the dire situation at Shifa Hospital, which is treating more than 200 people injured in yesterday’s tragic incident. pic.twitter.com/7ba0w3xgzc
– UN Humanitarian (@UNOCHA) March 1, 2024
“This is a day after the tragic events at the Beach Road checkpoint, where hundreds of people lost their lives and were injured,” Petropoulos said in a video report, standing in front of al-Shifa hospital .
“We saw people with gunshot wounds. We saw amputees and children as young as 12 who were injured yesterday (Thursday),” he said in the video shared on X on Saturday morning.
“These events cannot continue. »
The majority of the injured were hit by gunfire
The head of a Gaza City hospital that treated some Palestinians wounded in the bloodshed said Friday that more than 80 percent of the wounded were hit by gunfire, suggesting there had been gunfire. fed by Israeli troops.
Mohammed Salha, acting director of Al-Awda Hospital, told The Associated Press that of the 176 wounded brought to the facility, 142 had gunshot wounds and the remaining 34 had injuries caused by a stampede.
He could not explain the cause of death of those killed, as the bodies were taken to public hospitals to be counted.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, said all the admitted victims were hit by “bullets and shrapnel from the occupying forces,” referring to Israel.
The majority of injured people taken there had gunshot wounds to the upper body, and most deaths were due to gunshots to the head, neck or chest, he said.
The bloodshed underscored how the chaos of Israel’s nearly five-month offensive has paralyzed efforts to deliver aid to Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians, a quarter of whom the United Nations, risk famine.
Intimidation
The Israeli version of events changed throughout the day.
Reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, Tel Aviv Tribune’s Bernard Smith said the Israeli army “first tried to blame the crowd,” saying dozens of people were injured after being crushed and trampled during a stampede as aid trucks arrived.
“And then, after some pressure, the Israelis went on to say that their troops felt threatened, that hundreds of soldiers had approached them in a way that posed a threat to them, so they responded by opening fire,” Smith added. However, they did not explain how these people posed a threat.
Witnesses insisted that the stampede occurred only after Israeli troops began shooting at people searching for food.
The Gaza-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory said Israeli forces intentionally opened fire on the crowd of humanitarian aid recipients to “intimidate” all those struggling to get a handful of food .
The Human Rights Observatory released a report Thursday saying evidence shows dozens of victims suffered gunshot wounds, “rather than being run over or crushed, contrary to what the spokesperson claimed – word of the Israeli army.
Footage released by the Israeli military includes audio evidence of gunfire from Israeli tanks positioned near the coast, he added.
The group identified the distinctive sound of bullets audible in the footage as 5.56 bullets coming from an automatic weapon used by the Israeli army.
The majority of people at the scene, including those who were initially far from the aid trucks, are seen in the video fleeing the trucks and running in the opposite direction, the statement added.
“This indicates that the danger did not come from the trucks themselves or the surrounding crowds, but rather from an outside source that terrified everyone in the area, both near and far from the trucks,” he said. indicated the observer.
“Additionally, the video clip released by the Israeli army does not show any ramming operations, consistent with many survivors’ accounts of being shot in the back while trying to flee the scene. »
Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, said on Friday that “a famine is almost inevitable” in Gaza unless things change.
Laerke cited the near-total shutdown of commercial food imports, the “trickle of trucks” arriving with food aid, and “massive access constraints” on movement within Gaza.
The United Nations notably cited restrictions on access to northern Gaza, where residents have been reduced to eating animal fodder and even leaves.
Human Rights Watch said earlier this week that Israel was violating International Court of Justice orders by blocking aid to Palestinians who face near-starvation conditions after nearly five months of Israeli bombing that has killed more than of 30,000 people, mostly children and children. women.
“The Israeli government is starving Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians, putting them in even greater danger than before the World Court’s binding order,” said Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, on March 26. FEBRUARY.
“The Israeli government simply ignored the Court’s decision and, in some ways, even intensified its repression, including by further blocking vital aid. »
The United Nations refugee agency, UNRWA, has also expressed concerns over Israel’s blocking of aid.