20 Killed Waiting For Aid In Gaza

Another convoy bringing aid to hunger-stricken northern Gaza resulted in disaster late Thursday when Palestinians were killed and wounded in an attack surrounding the trucks, according to Gazan health officials and the Israeli military, which offered divergent accounts of the bloodshed.

The Gazan Health Ministry said that at least 20 people had been killed and more than 100 injured, and accused Israeli forces of carrying out a “targeted” attack against “a gathering of civilians waiting for humanitarian aid” near the Kuwait traffic circle in Gaza City.

The Israeli military denied the allegation in a statement on Friday, blaming Palestinian gunmen and saying that an “intensive preliminary review” had determined “that no tank fire, airstrike or gunfire was carried out toward the Gazan civilians at the aid convoy.”

The Israeli statement said that its forces had facilitated the passage of 31 trucks bringing food and supplies to a “humanitarian corridor” in northern Gaza. About an hour before the convoy arrived, while civilians were waiting for the trucks, “armed Palestinians opened fire,” the Israeli military said.

“As aid trucks were entering, the Palestinian gunmen continued to shoot as the crowd of Gazans began looting the trucks,” the military statement went on. “Additionally, a number of Gazan civilians were run over by the trucks.”

It was not immediately possible to verify either the Israeli or Gazan Health Ministry’s account. Videos posted to social media, which could not be immediately verified, show bodies lying on the ground in the aftermath. The cause of the deaths was not immediately clear.