ed note–again, par for the course, and the assassins of the IDF who did this can sleep soundly at night that they were ‘good Jews’ for doing it, to wit–
‘When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are to possess and drives out the many nations larger and stronger than you, and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. Do not save alive anything that breathes…Do not intermarry with them…Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons…Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their idols in the fire, for you are a people holy to the Lord your God who has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession…’ –Book of Deuteronomy
At least 104 Palestinians were killed and hundreds more wounded when Israeli forces opened fire on people at an aid convoy in Gaza City’s al-Rasheed Street on Thursday.
The Palestinian health ministry said, calling the incident a ‘massacre’.
Residents of Gaza City had gathered seeking food, with the area completely cut off from aid by Israeli forces. NGOs and UN experts have voiced fears of famine in northern Gaza and there are reports of people, including babies, dying of hunger.
Fares Afana, head of the ambulance service at Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, said medics found ‘hundreds’ of bodies lying on the ground once they reached the scene. He said some wounded had to be carried to hospitals on donkey carts as there were not enough ambulances to take all the dead and wounded.
Hospitals in northern Gaza, most of which are out of commission because of repeated Israeli attacks, are reportedly unable to deal with the large influx of patients.
Ahmad, a 31-year-old who only gave his first name, told Middle East Eye that aid trucks reached the street at 4am, and that Israeli forces fired at people trying to reach the convoy.
Ahmad was shot in the arm and the leg.
‘The shooting was indiscriminate, people shot in the head, in the foot, in the stomach,’ he said. ‘One man was martyred, then run over by the tank.’
The Israeli military accused the Palestinians themselves of being responsible for the massacre, saying: ‘residents surrounded the trucks and looted the supplies being delivered. As a result of the pushing, trampling and being run over by the trucks, dozens of Gazans were killed and injured.’
However, alongside witness testimony, video footage clearly shows heavy gunfire during the incident. Israeli sources told AFP that troops fired at the Palestinians, with one saying the soldiers believed the crowd ‘posed a threat’.
Kamel Abu Nahel, whose foot was ran over by one of the trucks, said: ‘If you want to send us aid like that, don’t send it.’
‘We are dying to get flour for our children,’ he added.
The attack comes as the Palestinian death toll in the war has surpassed 30,000, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Reacting to the attack, Oxfam said it was ‘appalled’ by the reports.
‘Israel deliberately targeting civilians after starving them is a gross violation of international humanitarian laws and our humanity,’ the international aid group said. ‘The risk of genocide is real.’
Ammar Helo, a 30-year-old Palestinian who survived the attack, told MEE he will still go down whenever aid trucks arrive, despite the risk to his life.
‘We do not have bread, we do not have flour, we have been eating animal food,’ he said. Survivors told MEE even animal feed was running out in the north.
‘I swear, all of Gaza is destroyed, I swear an earthquake from God would have been better.’