The Israeli military said Sunday that most of the Palestinians killed last week when crowds gathered near a humanitarian convoy in Gaza died in a stampede, but local health officials said the victims taken to hospitals they were hit by large caliber ammunition.
Pressure has mounted on Israel over the deaths of dozens of Palestinians during a confusing incident in the Gaza Strip on Thursday in which crowds surrounded a convoy of aid trucks and soldiers opened fire, with several countries backing calls for a United Nations investigation.
Palestinian health officials say more than 100 people have been killed, most of them killed by Israeli troops. Israeli officials rejected the figures provided by the Palestinians but did not offer any estimates of their own.
On Sunday, Israel’s top military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, announced the result of a preliminary analysis that repeated previous Israeli statements that most of the dead had been trampled as crowds rushed toward aid trucks.
Furthermore, “several people” were hit when Israeli soldiers shot at people who approached them afterwards, he said, adding that an independent investigation had been opened.
Muatasem Salah, a member of the Health Ministry’s emergency committee in Gaza, said there were more than 1,000 casualties, including deaths and injuries, as a result of the incident and rejected the conclusions of the Israeli analysis.
“Any attempt to say that people were martyred due to overcrowding or investment is wrong. The wounded and martyred are the result of being hit by large-caliber bullets,” he told Reuters.
Many of Israel’s closest allies, including the United States, have called for an investigation into the incident, which highlighted the humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by Israel and the increasingly chaotic conditions under which the small amount of aid that reaches it is distributed. the territory. .
International aid organizations have warned that hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza are facing famine, some five months after Israeli troops launched an invasion following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7.
According to Palestinian data, the Hamas attack has killed around 1,200 Israelis and foreigners while Israel has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians since October 7.
Hagari’s remarks suggested that some of those killed were killed by Israeli fire after soldiers fired the first warning shots, but he gave no details or numbers.
“After warning shots were fired to disperse the crowd and after our forces began to retreat, several looters approached our forces and posed an immediate threat to them. According to initial analysis, the soldiers responded against several people,” he said.
Source: Terra
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