Israeli fire on a hungry crowd and a widespread stampede during an aid distribution that turned into chaos Thursday in northern Gaza left more than 110 dead according to Hamas, the day the war toll passed 30 000 dead in the Palestinian territory.
While recognizing “limited shooting” by Israeli soldiers feeling “threatened”, an army official reported “a stampede during which dozens of residents were killed and injured, some run over by trucks help”.
“Life is leaving Gaza at a terrifying speed,” said UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths, nearly five months after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, sparked by an unprecedented bloody attack. on Israeli soil of the Palestinian Islamist movement.
The UN Security Council is due to meet behind closed doors at 4:15 p.m. (9:15 p.m. GMT) to discuss the drama in Gaza, while the United States demanded from Israel “answers” on “what exactly happened” while referring to an “incredibly desperate” situation in the Palestinian territory.
A doctor at al-Shifa hospital claimed Israeli soldiers shot at “thousands of citizens” rushing to aid trucks in Gaza City, with Hamas’ health ministry announcing 112 deaths and 760 injured in this “carnage”.
The UN estimates that 2.2 million people, the vast majority of the population, are at risk of starvation in the Gaza Strip besieged by Israel, particularly in the north, where Palestinians have reported eating fodder or slaughtering draft animals for food.
“Too close to the tanks”
According to a witness who requested anonymity, “aid trucks got too close to some army tanks that were in the area and the crowd, thousands of people, stormed the trucks” . The soldiers then “fired on the crowd because people were getting too close to the tanks. »
The Palestinian Authority based in the occupied West Bank, separated from Gaza by Israeli territory, “condemned a heinous massacre committed by the occupying forces”.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates condemned “the shooting of Israeli occupying forces against innocent civilians.” Turkey denounced “a crime against humanity”.
In separate calls to Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, US President Joe Biden spoke of the “tragic and alarming” episode in Gaza, after saying his country was examining “conflicting versions” of the drama.
The same day, the Hamas Ministry of Health announced a new toll of 30,035 dead and 70,457 wounded, most of them civilians, since the start of the war on October 7, in the Palestinian territory where Hamas took control. power in 2007.
“Probably” no truce by Monday
Meanwhile, hopes of a truce before the start of Ramadan, a holy month of fasting for Muslims that begins on the evening of March 10 or 11, have been dashed.
There will “probably” be no truce by Monday, Joe Biden said after saying at the start of the week that he hoped for a ceasefire by March 4.
According to the White House, he also discussed with the heads of state of Qatar and Egypt an agreement for an “immediate and lasting” ceasefire of at least six weeks, in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
The mediators — Qatar, the United States and Egypt — have been trying for weeks to secure such an agreement, without success so far.
“The best way to alleviate the current suffering of the Palestinian people is to reach agreement on a temporary ceasefire that would free the hostages and allow more aid to be delivered,” the State Department said. American.
In the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, two Israelis were shot dead in an attack near a settlement, attributed by the army to “a terrorist” who was shot dead.
The war was sparked on October 7 by an attack launched by Hamas commandos infiltrated from the neighboring Gaza Strip in southern Israel, which caused the deaths of at least 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to a AFP count based on official Israeli data.
During the attack, some 250 people were kidnapped and taken to Gaza. According to Israel, 130 hostages are still being held there, 31 of whom are believed to have died, after the release of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel during a truce at the end of November.
In retaliation, Israel vowed to annihilate Hamas, considered terrorist by the United States, Canada and the European Union.
His army relentlessly shelled the Gaza Strip and launched a ground offensive on October 27, with soldiers gradually advancing from north to south of the cramped territory.
“The world should be ashamed”
Fighting continues to rage in several sectors, notably in Khan Younes, in the south, near Rafah.
On a daily basis, civilians are caught up in Israeli fighting and bombardments, which have spared no area of the territory, devastated entire neighborhoods and forced 1.7 million people to flee their homes.
According to the UN, nearly 1.5 million displaced people have reached Rafah, a city of some 270,000 inhabitants before the war.
They are massed with no escape in this city stuck against the closed border with Egypt, and bombarded daily by Israel.
But the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he was determined to launch a ground offensive there to, according to him, defeat Hamas in its “last bastion”.
“I’m afraid they will launch an attack on Rafah. Where will we go? » says Abdallah al-Masry, 19, displaced from Beit Hanoun (north). “Our families in the north have nothing, neither food nor water. They tell us that they eat dead pigeons and donkey meat. The world should be ashamed! »