At least dozens and as many as more than 100 Palestinians were killed early morning on Thursday in a three-part disastrous delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in northern Gaza.
The picture is still far from clear, but according to the IDF, the vast majority of Palestinians were killed while trampling each other to get to around 30 aid trucks at about 4:40 a.m. The IDF said the total was in the dozens.
Hamas, without providing evidence, accused the IDF of committing a “massacre” and killing over 100 civilians.
The trucks had come from the Keren Shalom and Rafah crossings, traveled along the coastal road to a part of northern Gaza close to Rimal, and then cut into residential areas to make deliveries.
This morning humanitarian aid trucks entered northern Gaza, residents surrounded the trucks and looted the supplies being delivered. As a result of the pushing, trampling and being run over by the trucks, dozens of Gazans were killed and injured.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) February 29, 2024
According to the IDF, and with a 100-second satellite video in support, thousands of Palestinians converged on the aid trucks and attempted to take supplies by force.
It is unclear in the video if and when Palestinians trampled each other, though the scene from the satellite footage is extremely chaotic and does show many Palestinians occupying the same space.
The video does not show any firing by the IDF.
It is also unclear from the video whether any Palestinians were run over by the trucks as they tried to make progress.
Incident at El-Nabusi Square
A second incident occurred a short time later at another spot at El-Nabusi Square, where unidentified armed Palestinians fired on the trucks and stole supplies.
It was unclear who or how many people may have been injured at this stage, but IDF forces did not fire on anyone.
In the third stage, a large group of Palestinians descended on the aid trucks but also came close to a surprise Israeli protective force stationed nearby.
According to the IDF midday, once the large group of Palestinians progressed to only being a couple dozen meters away from them, the military forces fired in the air and issued warnings to stay away.
When the same Palestinians continued to come closer to IDF forces to a point where they felt threatened, they were directed to fire at the Palestinians’ legs.
During this incident, an estimated 10 Palestinians were killed. It was unclear if they had aggressive intentions or were civilians caught up in a chaotic moment.
IDF sources initially seemed to suggest there were no special rules limiting live fire against such civilians in the context of a humanitarian operation or whether the forces could have retreated backward, citing that the area was still a war zone.
However, in the evening, the IDF added that its tanks had retreated backward and avoided running over or firing on the Palestinians nearby.
At no time did the IDF claim that the incident was planned or controlled by Hamas, despite repeated questions about the issue by The Jerusalem Post.Dozens of Gazans wounded after ambushing aid truck on February 29, 2024 (IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
Gaza aid-distribution deaths a tragedy, Israeli official says
“My understanding is that humanitarian aid vehicles entered the Gaza Strip and were overwhelmed by people attempting to loot, to take that aid from aid trucks,” government spokesperson Avi Hyman said.
“At some point, the trucks were overwhelmed, and the people driving the trucks, who were Gazan civilian drivers, plowed into the crowd of people, ultimately killing tens of people,” he said.
“It’s obviously a tragedy, but we’re not sure of the specifics quite yet.”
It was unclear why Hyman emphasized the trucks running over civilians, whereas the IDF seemed to emphasize Palestinian civilians on foot trampling each other.
In response to the incident, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir criticized the transfer of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
“Today, it was proven that the transfer of humanitarian aid to Gaza while hostages are being held captive in the Gaza Strip is not only madness, but it also endangers the life of IDF soldiers.
“This is another reason why we must stop the transfer of aid. In truth, the aid only harms IDF soldiers and provides oxygen to Hamas,” he concluded.
Despite Ben-Gvir, Israel’s defense establishment is in favor of providing humanitarian aid in order to maintain US support for the war. Also, the International Court of Justice has required maintaining such aid.
Later Thursday, the IDF also updated the public that 13,000 Hamas terrorists have been killed, up from a 10,000-12,000 estimate some weeks ago.
Further, the military said it has now attacked Hezbollah 4,000 times since the start of the war.
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday said that the IDF-captured hard disks, computers, and internet servers have been a major boost for Israel to dissect and destroy Hamas.
This has been true in terms of mapping out Hamas’s infrastructure as well as for tracking the movements of its leaders like Gaza Chief Yahya Sinwar.
Fighting continued on Thursday between the IDF and Hamas in the South and with Hezbollah in the North.
Despite citing Hamas’s casualty numbers at a congressional hearing on Thursday, the Pentagon clarified to the Post that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin does not stand by those numbers per se.
During the hearing, Austin said that more than 25,000 women and children had been killed by Israel since October 7, adding that Israel can and should do more to protect civilians.
More specifically, at the congressional hearing, the defense secretary was asked how many Palestinian women and children had been killed by Israel, and Austin replied: “It is over 25,000.”
In contrast, Israel has said that it has killed around 11,000-13,000 Hamas forces and that additional Palestinian civilians have been killed by 10-15% rocket misfires by Hamas. Presuming the 30,000 dead Palestinians number provided by Hamas’s Health Ministry is correct, this would mean that the number of killed Palestinian civilians could likely be between 15,000-18,000, significantly lower than 25,000.
Hamas has said the IDF has only killed 6,000 of its forces. For Austin to say the IDF has killed 25,000 civilians would then have seemed to suggest he was accepting Hamas’s numbers over Israel’s.
Asked to clarify the situation, Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh responded to the Post that, “During the hearing today, Secretary Austin was asked how many women and children have died in Gaza. To clarify, the secretary’s answer was citing an estimate from the Hamas-controlled health ministry that more than 25,000 total Palestinians have been killed in Gaza. We cannot independently verify these Gaza casualty figures.”
The Post followed up by asking why Austin chose to cite only the Hamas numbers and not both the Hamas and IDF numbers.
Jerusalem Post Staff and Tovah Lazaroff contributed to this report.