Times of Israel reports:
The Israel Defense Forces on Friday denied claims by the Hamas terror group that troops had opened fire on crowds of civilians waiting for aid at a square in Gaza City, saying that Israeli soldiers did not shoot at any stage during the incident and that Palestinian gunmen caused the casualties.The Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip accused Israeli troops of opening fire from “tanks and helicopters” at the civilians gathered at Kuwait Square late Thursday, killing 21 people and wounding more than 150 others.The Israeli military said that after conducting an “intensive preliminary review,” it found that “the IDF did not open fire at the aid convoy at Kuwait Square.”
Meanwhile, the imaginary death toll from the incident has now climbed in Palestinian media from about 15 to over 100, according to the Hamas media office. The health ministry still says 20.“Approximately one hour before the arrival of the convoy to the humanitarian corridor, armed Palestinians opened fire while Gazan civilians were awaiting the arrival of the aid convoy. As aid trucks were entering, the Palestinian gunmen continued to shoot as the crowd of Gazans began looting the trucks. Additionally, a number of Gazan civilians were run over by the trucks.”
We know there were people shooting. We know it wasn't the IDF - even without their denial, why would they go through the trouble to facilitate bringing in aid trucks when if just want to shoot civilians? Only a crazed antisemitic conspiracy theory would say that somehow the IDF spends hundreds of man hours to facilitate aid and then turn around and attack the people it was meant for.
But there is another option besides assuming it was Hamas.
For all its terrorism, Hamas largely kept law and order in Gaza. It is in Hamas' interest to keep Gaza in chaos in order to give the impression that it is the only party that can restore order. But the chaos, while perhaps fomented and encouraged by Hamas, can come up organically. And Hamas wants to make itself look like it alone can make things better.
Gaza is now a black market society. People are selling the food and aid they don't need to informal pop-up stores. The prices have increased dramatically. People are desperate.
Gaza is a wonderful place to be a criminal. And criminals who want to profit off the shortages would have no problem shooting people to make their money - and to keep the supply available to the public low.
I'm not saying Hamas couldn't be involved as well. But Hamas can more easily get the aid off the trucks coming from Egypt than the trucks going up north. A lot of the food is paid for by Qatar, which would collude with Hamas to hand it over to them. Hamas has limited resources in Gaza and hijacking food trucks up north is probably not one of their highest priorities.
But they could easily be encouraging, or even paying, criminals - perhaps even sprung from jail - to create the chaos that Hamas benefits from. They get to blame Israel for any deaths, they get to multiply the deaths by a factor of 5 or 10, they get to look like a better alternative to the IDF occupying Gaza.
