The Israeli army launched an investigation into possible war crimes following increasing evidence that the troops deliberately shot the gathering of Palestinian civilians to receive aid to Gaza.
Hundreds of people were killed In recent weeks after being subjected to air attacks, fire and bombing by Israeli defense forces (FDI) while waiting for food to be distributed or while making their way to distribution sites.
Friday, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted anonymous Israeli soldiers telling him to shoot crowds near food distribution sites to keep them away from Israeli military positions. The soldiers said they had concerns about the use of unnecessary deadly force against people who did not seem to be threatening.
Haaretz also cited anonymous sources saying that the army unit established to examine incidents that could involve violations of international law had been responsible for examining the actions of soldiers near the distribution sites during the last month.
In a press release reported by the Israeli media, The FDI rejected the accusationssaying that no forces had been ordered “to deliberately shoot civilians, including those who approached distribution centers”.
“To be clear, the TDI directives prohibit deliberate attacks on civilians,” said the FDI.
In a joint declaration published late Friday, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister, and Israel Katz, Minister of Defense, accused Haaretz of “malicious lies designed to defame the FDI, the most moral army in the world”.
Food has become extremely rare in Gaza since a tight blockage on all supplies was imposed by Israel in March and April, threatening many of the 2.3 million people who live there with famine.
Since the blockade was partly lifted last month, the UN tried to help you but has faced major obstacles, including compulsory rubbles, Israeli military restrictions, continuous air strikes and growing anarchy. Hundreds of trucks have been looted by armed gangs and desperate Palestinian crowds.
Thursday, 18 people were killed in an Israeli strike targeting Palestinian police distributing flour on a center market Gaza City of Deir al-Balah, said medical officials.
The strike seems to have targeted members of a security force created by the Interior Ministry led by Hamas to target looters and merchants who sell stolen aid at high prices.
Unity, known as the name Sahm, or arrowconfiscated stolen help which she then distributes. Witnesses said many of the victims were ordinary civilians who had gathered to receive bags of a warehouse from the crossroads of Baraka in the northern part of Deir al-Balah.
The dead included a child and at least seven SAHM members, according to the neighboring Martyrs Aqsa hospital, where victims were made. There was no immediate comment on the attack on the Israeli army.
Razeq Abu Mandil, paramedical of the Al-Maghazi refugee camp, said: “Among the wounded, men, women and children. In my ambulance, there was a woman and her daughter – both injured.
“When we arrived, there were people torn apart – seriously injured and dead … We started to transport the wounded and the dead to the hospital, then we returned to load the ambulances. I repeated these three or four times. The situation in the hospital was catastrophic. ”
Ahmed Abu Zubeida, 36, from Al-Bureij, nearby, was among the injured.
“I was far from the point of impact, but bursts of shells injured my leg. I looked around and saw people lying on the ground-torn bodies, wounded people, blood and its smell filling the air, cries and cries,” he said.
The strike occurred shortly after the closure of Israel in the North GazaCutting the most direct aid route to the parts of the territory where the humanitarian crisis is the most acute.
During most of the war, aid to Gaza was distributed mainly by the UN and other international humanitarian organizations, but Israel said that Hamas had diverted and sold supplies to finance its military and other operations.
The UN and other aid groups deny the accusation and say that their surveillance of their distribution networks is robust.
Israel supported an American private entrepreneur, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which began to distribute food boxes in Gaza last month from four hubs.
To reach the GHF sites, which open intermittent and unpredictable and often at night, the Palestinians must cross the Israeli roads and military zones where witnesses often say the troops shoot them With mortars, tanks and machine guns.
A senior assistance in Gaza said that many shots had taken place in the dark when civilians gathered near the Israeli troops to wait for the distribution sites to open or to receive looted truck assistance.
“The soldiers shoot them to keep them away, or because they do not know who is there, or because they don’t care, or the three,” said the manager.
The medical records of independent NGOs working in Gaza, seen by The Guardian, confirm hundreds of deadly balls and some of bombing.
The IDF insists on its internal processes are robust but criticism Let’s say that few surveys are deepened and that only a small fraction leads to a sanction.
Israel continued to allow a smaller number of Gaza aid trucks for the distribution of the UN and other organizations, with around 70 entering the territory every day on Monday and Tuesday. On Thursday, Israel closed the entry points used to access directly to the north of the territory, where the need for help is the highest.
António Guterres, UN Secretary General, said on Friday that the help of assistance supported by the United States in Gaza was “intrinsically dangerous”, giving a frank assessment: “It is killing people.”
“People are just killed while trying to eat and their families. The search for food should never be a death sentence,” Guterres told journalists.
The war was triggered by an attack in Hamas against southern Israel in which activists killed 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and took 251 hostages.
The overall number of death in Gaza in the 20 month conflict reached 56,331 Deaths, mainly civilians, according to local health authorities.
Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report
