‘Shocked’ world demands probe into Gaza massacre
World leaders yesterday called for an investigation and a ceasefire nearly five months into the Gaza war, a day after dozens of desperate Palestinians were killed rushing an aid convoy.
Israeli troops opened fire as Palestinian civilians scrambled for food aid during a chaotic incident Thursday which the territory's health ministry said killed more than 100 people in Gaza City.
Meanwhile, the United Nations yesterday said famine in the Gaza Strip is almost inevitable unless the Israel-Hamas war stops.
The UN and other humanitarian actors have not yet declared a state of famine in Gaza, despite worsening conditions in the Palestinian territory since the war began on October 7.
However, "once a famine is declared, it is too late for too many people", said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA.
The World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday said the level of hunger and desperation among the people in Gaza has reached such level that they are risking their lives to find food, water and other supplies.
"The system in Gaza is on its knees, it's more than on its knees," WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told reporters in Geneva. "All the lifelines in Gaza have more or less been cut."
Lindmeier said this had created a "desperate situation", as seen on Thursday, when more than 100 people seeking humanitarian aid in Gaza were killed.
"People are so desperate for food, for fresh water, for any supplies that they risk their lives in getting any food, any supplies to support their children, to support themselves," Lindmeier said.
While aid is reaching southern parts of the Gaza Strip, it is too slow to avert a hunger crisis even there. Aid barely makes it to northern areas that are further from the main border crossing and only accessible through more active battle fronts.
"The food supplies have been cut off deliberately. Let's not forget that," Lindmeier said.
Israel has said the failure to get enough aid into Gaza to meet humanitarian needs is due to UN distribution failures.
About Thursday's incident, the Israeli military said a "stampede" occurred when thousands of Gazans surrounded the convoy of 38 aid trucks, leading to dozens of deaths and injuries, including some who were run over.
An Israeli source acknowledged troops had opened fire on the crowd, believing it "posed a threat".
Gaza's health ministry called it a "massacre" and said 112 people were killed and more than 750 others wounded.
The fatalities helped push the total number of Palestinian war dead in Gaza to 30,228 mostly women and children, according to the ministry's latest toll.
Overnight, over 80 people were killed in strikes, the ministry said.
"The Israeli army must fully investigate how the mass panic and shooting could have happened," German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wrote on social media platform X.
Her French counterpart Stephane Sejourne said "there will have to be an independent probe to determine what happened", and Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani urged Israel "to protect the people in Gaza and to rigorously ascertain facts and responsibilities".
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, also writing on X, said "every effort must be made to investigate what happened and ensure transparency".
US President Joe Biden -- whose country provides billions of dollars in military aid to Israel -- said Washington was checking "two competing versions" of the incident.
Aerial footage of the incident made clear "just how desperate the situation on the ground is", a US State Department spokesman said. Washington was pushing Israel to allow in more aid, he said.
The Gaza City aid incident came with talks progressing towards a ceasefire, but would now complicate those efforts, Biden said.
The White House later said it had asked Israel to probe the "tremendously alarming" deaths.
The foreign ministry of Gulf emirate Qatar, a mediator in the war, condemned "in the strongest terms the heinous massacre committed by the Israeli occupation" and called for "urgent international action" to halt the fighting in Gaza.
Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry also condemned the deaths and reiterated "the need to reach an immediate ceasefire".
Further afield, in South America, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced the suspension of arms purchases from Israel after the "genocide" in Gaza City.
Israel is threatening to send in troops against Hamas fighters in Rafah.
Information conflicted on what exactly unfolded in Gaza City.
A witness, declining to be named for safety reasons, said the violence began when thousands of people rushed towards aid trucks, leading soldiers to open fire when "people came too close" to tanks.
Israeli army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the military had fired "a few warning shots" to try to disperse a "mob" that had "ambushed" the aid trucks.
"Thousands of Gazans" swarmed the trucks, "violently pushing and even trampling other Gazans to death, looting the humanitarian supplies," he said.
When the crowd got too big, he said the convoy tried to retreat and "the unfortunate incident resulted in dozens of Gazans killed and injured".
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