Humanitarian organizations have been warning since January of the chaos that the Israeli army is allowing to spread in the besieged Gaza enclave. A hunger riot and hundreds of deaths and injuries following a distribution of humanitarian aid orchestrated by the army on Thursday February 29 confirmed their predictions.
Emmanuel Macron has already asked “an independent investigation” and expressed “ [s]“stronger condemnation of these shots, and calls for truth, justice and respect for international law.” For his part, Stéphane Séjourné, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, described the riot, Friday morning on France Inter, as“indefensible” and D’“unjustifiable”.
This convoy was chartered without any dialogue with the United Nations agencies which provide most of the aid to Gaza, nor with the civil administration, assimilated by Israel to Hamas, and without the inhabitants being channeled. Before dawn on Thursday, rumors of an imminent distribution had spread in Gaza City. When the first of these 38 trucks crossed the Israeli checkpoint south of the metropolis, hundreds of men and teenagers were waiting for them on the rutted boulevard that runs along the sea.
Soon thousands of them were rushing towards the loads, trying to grab a bag of flour, or a box of aid. An amateur video, filmed at night and broadcast by the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera, shows a crowd retreating, while the sharp cracks of bursts of gunfire intermittently resonate. The Israeli army placed soldiers along the road, in order to “secure a corridor”. The local health ministry, controlled by Hamas, claims that these soldiers opened fire on the crowd and puts forward a colossal toll: 112 Palestinian dead and 760 injured.
“Gunshot wounds”
The Israeli army, for its part, denies having fired in the direction of the convoy. She mentions “dozens of dead and injured (…) in a stampede.” She also claims that truck drivers forced their way, crushing civilians. She acknowledges, however, that soldiers fired on Gazans who approached their positions.
Al-Awda hospital, one of the city’s establishments, received 176 injured people, according to its acting director, Doctor Mohamed Salha. “We observed gunshot wounds to all areas of the body, hands, legs, abdomen or chest”he describes World by telephone. He specifies that he has not observed any injuries suggesting a stampede.
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