The Israeli military announced on Friday that a review of a stampede that occurred during the distribution of humanitarian aid in the northern Gaza Strip last month and which, according to Hamas, claimed the lives of 115 Palestinians, concluded that forces “fired accurately” at suspects who approached soldiers nearby.
The army said, “A command review concluded that soldiers… did not open fire on the humanitarian aid convoy, but rather opened fire on a number of suspects who had approached nearby forces and posed a threat to them.”
On Tuesday, the Commander of the Southern District, Yaron Finkelman, presented the results of the investigation into a series of incidents that occurred during the humanitarian campaign to bring supply convoys into the northern Gaza Strip on February 29 to the Chief of Staff, General Herzi Halevy.
The investigation revealed that while the trucks were heading towards the distribution points, “a violent crowd of about 12,000 Gazan residents arose around the trucks, where they looted the incoming equipment.”
He continued Statement “During the looting, some people were injured as a result of the severe overcrowding and being run over by trucks. In addition, during the crowding, dozens of Gazan residents came within a few meters of the IDF forces, posing a real danger to the force at the point. At this point, the forces fired accurately to distance “Some suspects. As the suspects continued to approach, the forces opened fire to remove the threat.”
The army confirmed that “the incident will continue to be investigated by the examination system at the level of the General Staff, which constitutes an independent examination body responsible for examining exceptional events that occurred during the fighting, and will determine its conclusions regarding the incident.”
The army says that it “attacks great importance to humanitarian efforts and is making great efforts to allow the transfer of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and improve existing systems in this regard.”
On the other hand, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs considered, in a statement, that “the investigations it described as alleged conducted by the Israeli army regarding the Rashid Street massacre are formal investigations aimed at exonerating the army and suppressing evidence,” stressing that “the accused may not investigate himself, especially since he There were demands from countries to form an independent international investigation committee.”
The ministry indicated that “the army always lies and covers up its soldiers as well to protect them from accountability and legal prosecution,” expressing its refusal to “form an internal Israeli investigation committee whose goal is not to search for the truth but to obscure it, as is always the case, and it will never accept these fabricated results that have been formulated.” In the corridors of the army.
The Ministry demands “the prosecution of the murderers and those who gave instructions to open fire on starving civilians, and the prosecution of those who prevented humanitarian aid trucks from reaching the northern Gaza Strip and those who imposed starvation as a lethal weapon to kill innocent citizens in Gaza.”
The process of distributing humanitarian aid in the northern Gaza Strip a few days ago turned into a tragedy that led to the death of more than a hundred people in light of conflicting statements and a widespread wave of condemnation from Western and Arab countries, which repeated the call for an immediate ceasefire, and some of which demanded an international investigation.
Hundreds of people rushed to a group of about 30 trucks carrying aid, at dawn on Thursday (February 29), to the north. Palestinians said nearby Israeli forces opened fire on the crowds. While the Israeli army said that the review, which collected information from commanders and forces in the field, concluded that no strike was directed against the aid convoy.
Army spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari said, “Most of the Palestinians were killed or injured as a result of the stampede.”
He added, “After the warning shots were fired to disperse the stampede, and after our forces began to retreat, a number of saboteurs approached our forces and posed a direct threat to them. According to the initial review, the soldiers responded toward several individuals.”
On the other hand, the Hamas Ministry of Health reported that Israeli army fire killed more than 100 people as they gathered to obtain aid in the besieged northern Gaza Strip.
The Ministry’s spokesman, Ashraf Al-Qudra, indicated in a statement last Saturday that “the toll from the Al-Rashid Street massacre has risen to 118 martyrs and 760 injuries.”
He continued, “Dozens of injured people are still in danger, which could raise the number of martyrs at any moment, as a result of the lack of medical capabilities to save their lives.”
Eyewitnesses said that Israeli forces opened fire when thousands of Palestinians in dire need of food rushed towards aid trucks at the Nabulsi roundabout, located on Al-Rashid Street in the west of the city.
Doctors in Gaza hospitals and a United Nations team that visited a hospital there confirmed that large numbers of wounded were shot.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that a United Nations team visited Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, last Friday, to deliver medical supplies and met with people who were injured in the incident.
For its part, the European Union’s European Foreign Affairs Service said last Saturday that many Palestinians were killed or injured while trying to obtain aid by Israeli army fire, calling for an international investigation.
The European Foreign Affairs Service added that “responsibility for this incident lies with the restrictions imposed by the Israeli army and the obstruction by violent extremists of the delivery of humanitarian aid.”
The entry of aid is subject to the approval of Israel, which tightened the siege on Gaza shortly after the start of the war, and relief arrives only in very limited quantities, most of which comes through the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
Relief groups and the United Nations accused Israel of preventing aid from reaching northern Gaza, which it denied. Aid groups have also reported rampant looting of aid trucks in the area.
Famine threatens 2.2 million people out of a population of 2.4 million, according to the United Nations, which warned last Friday that famine in the Strip “has become almost inevitable unless something changes.”
The war broke out on October 7, following an unprecedented attack launched by the movement on Israeli areas and sites adjacent to the Gaza Strip, resulting in the killing of more than 1,160 people, the majority of them civilians, including women and children, according to an Agence France-Presse census based on official Israeli data.
About 250 hostages were also taken, and Israel says 130 of them are still in Gaza, and 31 of them are believed to have been killed.
Israel vowed to “eliminate” the movement, and carried out intensive bombing operations, which, starting on October 27, were accompanied by ground operations, which led to the killing of more than 30,000 people in the Gaza Strip, the majority of whom were women and children, and the wounding of about 72,000, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
ظهرت في الأصل على www.alhurra.com