Gaza Genocideupdated 1h ago2 min read
Archive photo · 29 January 2025Israeli Forces Fire on Gaza City Aid Convoy Crowd, Killing At Least 104 Palestinians
“Israel said many of the dead were trampled in a chaotic crush for the food aid”
“the Palestinian health ministry said, calling the incident a ‘massacre’.”
Photo: Jaber Jehad Badwan, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Cropped for layout
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
At least 104 Palestinians killed as Gaza City crowd gathered around aid trucks. Israeli forces fired on the crowd near al-Rasheed Street during aid distribution.
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Aid convoy turns deadly
Israeli forces fired on a crowd gathered around an aid convoy in Gaza City’s al-Rasheed Street on Thursday, and Palestinian health officials said at least 104 Palestinians were killed with hundreds more wounded. The Israeli military said residents surrounded the trucks and looted the supplies being delivered, and it blamed the resulting pushing, trampling and being run over by the trucks for dozens of Gazans being killed and injured.
The New York Times described Gazan health officials saying scores of people were brought to hospitals with gunshot wounds and had been killed or injured in a “massacre,” while Israeli officials said most had been killed or injured in a stampede or after being run over by trucks. The New York Times also reported that the Israeli military acknowledged that soldiers opened fire, saying it was “only in face of danger when the mob moved in a manner which endangered them.”
Competing explanations and probes
The White House said the incident was “tremendously alarming,” and it said it would demand answers from Israel while calling for “expanded humanitarian aid to make its way into Gaza.”
IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters that “This morning, the IDF coordinated a convoy of 38 trucks” and said tanks were there to secure the humanitarian corridor for the aid convoy.
Hagari said that at 4:45 a.m. “a mob ambushed the aid trucks, bringing the convoy to a halt,” and he said tanks cautiously tried to disperse the mob with a few warning shots.
Hamas blamed the IDF for the reported 104 deaths, and the Jerusalem Post reported that Hamas accused the IDF of committing a “massacre” and killing over 100 civilians.
Famine fears and diplomatic fallout
The UN warned that famine was imminent for more than half a million of Gaza’s residents, and the New York Times reported that one in six children under the age of 2 in northern Gaza was suffering from acute malnutrition. The New York Times said Gaza’s health ministry reported that at least six children in the territory had died from dehydration and malnutrition, as humanitarian aid delivery dwindled amid Israeli entry restrictions, airstrikes and the ground invasion.
Carl Skau, deputy head of the World Food Program, told the UN Security Council on February 28 that “One child in every six under the age of two is acutely malnourished,” and he said UNRWA was “indispensable” to averting a famine. The Times of Israel reported that Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said, “We are hopeful that we can reach a cessation of hostilities and exchange of hostages,” while negotiations were complicated by the mass-casualty incident and Hamas warned it could lead to the failure of talks.