The IDF on Thursday reported that as aid trucks were brought into northern Gaza on Thursday morning, Gazan residents gathered around the trucks, acting violently and looting the supplies."Early this morning, during the entry of humanitarian aid trucks into the northern Gaza Strip, Gazan residents surrounded the trucks, and looted the supplies being delivered," the IDF confirmed. "During the incident, dozens of Gazans were injured as a result of pushing and trampling."According to the reports, some of the masses neared the IDF troops in a dangerous fashion, threatening to harm the troops.The soldiers, whose job it was to allow safe distribution of the aid, felt threatened by the masses and responded with live fire.
The IDF released a video showing the crowds massing around the aid trucks, some climbing on top of them, but it doesn't show the shootings or any panicked fleeing to my eye.
It seems likely that some people fell off the trucks and some might have been crushed.
The reporting in Arab media is quite different:
In a new massacre committed by the Israeli occupation tanks and artillery strikes, at least 104 civilians were killed and dozens were injured today while waiting for food aid in Al-Rashid Street southwest of Gaza City.Medical sources said that occupation forces opened heavy machine-gun fire towards thousands of citizens from the northern Gaza Strip, specifically from Gaza City, Jabalia and Beit Hanoun, who were waiting for the arrival of trucks loaded with humanitarian aid in Al-Rashid Street southwest of Gaza City, resulting in the killing of over 104 persons.
104 dead from troops shooting? Machine gun fire? And other reports claim artillery as well.
Others are now claiming 150 killed.
One site claims to have video of the "massacre" - but it shows nothing, no gunshots or even panic.
ما حدث صباح اليوم فعل أكثر من وصفه بالمجزرة الكبيرة بحق المواطنين الذين كانوا ينتظرون وصول المساعدات بالقرب من دوار النابلسي على شارع الرشيد .. حتى اللحظة هناك عدد كبير من الشهداء ، واصابات غالبيتها تعرضت للبتر ، المشهد مفجع للغاية داخل مجمع الشفاء الطبي ،، أعداد كبيرة من… pic.twitter.com/AdUpcmhGW9
— الحـكـيم (@Hakeam_ps) February 29, 2024
All we know is that the IDF did shoot at some people. 104 or 150 is an insanely huge number to be killed. Normally as soon as the first shots ring out everyone else scatters.
With hundreds of people there, one would expect to find lots of videos being shared on social media of the shootings. The most gruesome photo I could find shows several bodies, but I cannot see any gunshots - their injuries seem more consistent with a stampede than shootings.
I count seven or eight bodies in an Al Jazeera video.
What seems most likely is that some - maybe dozens - of Palestinians were killed in a stampede, perhaps as they were crowding around the trucks and perhaps fleeing the IDF defensive shooting. Even if the stampede was running away from live fire, there wouldn't be that many dead, because it was an open area and high casualty deadly stampedes only happen in spaces where the crowds have nowhere to go.
Palestinian officials are inflating the death count by an order of magnitude, which they have been doing since the beginning of the war as we saw in the Al Ahli Islamic Jihad rocket explosion. They look at any incident where civilians are killed as an opportunity to demonize Israel, a higher priority than saving lives or grieving.
There was at least one tragic incident this morning. But there is no way that over a hundred people died.
UPDATE: The IDF says it hit no more than 10 people and shot at their legs. They say it was a separate incident and not connected with the convoy.
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