What Happened This Morning in Gaza?

You’ve probably seen some of the same reports I have about a “massacre” that Gaza claims happened early this morning when the IDF opened fire on civilians waiting for food. At this moment, most of the US news outlets reporting on this say it’s still not clear what happened because each side is telling a very different story.

The basic outline is that sometime around 4 am local time a large number of trucks carrying food were moving north toward Gaza City along a road that runs along the ocean. What happened next is disputed but there doesn’t seem to be much argument that dozens of people who’d come for the food were killed.

The Israel Defense Forces released black-and-white drone footage showing hundreds of Palestinians rushing toward the slow-moving relief convoy; videos on social media showed a frantic scramble in the pre-dawn darkness along al-Rashid Street, in the southwest part of Gaza City…

Palestinian officials said Israeli forces opened fire on the crowd, an account corroborated by eyewitnesses and doctors, who said many of the dead and injured were brought in with bullet wounds. Israel disputed the casualty count and said people died in a stampede and not from Israeli fire — which officials described as warning shots not directed at the convoy.

The IDF briefed reporters on their version of events:

According to an Israeli military official who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, some 30 trucks ferrying humanitarian aid traveled from the Kerem Shalom crossing between southern Israel and Gaza along the coastal road into northern Gaza.

As the trucks neared Gaza City early Thursday morning, thousands of people surrounded the trucks in an attempt to take supplies, leading to a crush in which dozens were injured and killed, in some cases run over by aid trucks seeking to extricate themselves, according to the official.

The official said that several hundred meters farther south — at the tail end of the convoy — dozens of civilians who had crowded the trucks there then approached Israeli troops and a tank securing the road.

Israeli military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said in a televised briefing that the soldiers opened fire “only in face of danger when the mob moved in a manner which endangered them.”

But a Gazan journalist claimed it was the IDF opening fire which caused the truck drivers to attempt to flee, striking civilians in the process.

The majority of the casualties occurred as a result of people being rammed by aid trucks trying to escape Israeli fire, according to a local journalist in Gaza, Khader Al Za’anoun.

Al Za’anoun, who was at the scene and witnessed the incident, said that while there were large crowds waiting for food to be distributed from aid trucks, the chaos and confusion that led to people being hit by the trucks only started once Israeli soldiers opened fire.

“Most of the people that were killed were rammed by the aid trucks during the chaos and while trying to escape the Israeli gunfire,” Al Za’anoun said.

Meanwhile, Gazan health officials are claiming the dead and wounded had all been shot.

Hussam Abu Safiya, director of the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, said the facility had received 12 bodies, including of a 15-year-old child, and 175 wounded. “All the cases that reached us, without exception, were injured by explosive gunshot wounds, and most of them were injured by multiple bullet wounds,” he said.

Here’s a bit of the video released by the IDF showing there definitely was a crowd around the trucks. But there’s no audio so we can’t tell when or from what direction shots were fired.

According to Gaza health officials, over 100 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire near food aid trucks.

The IDF said it “fired at those who posed a threat,” and most of the casualties were a result of people “pushing, trampling and being run over.”pic.twitter.com/3116bT5DdP

— Ground News (@Ground_app) February 29, 2024

None of the stories seem to agree. The aid trucks were surrounded and a Gazan journalist claims IDF fire led to panic in which the trucks were running people over. But other Gazan officials claim all of the dead and wounded were shot, suggesting none of the damage was caused by trucks. And of course the IDF itself says it was far from most of what happened and only fired at a few people on one end of the crowd when they approached a tank.

So I’ll leave you with two conflicting reports, one from Al Jazeera which seems to assume the IDF just opened fire on the crowd:

And this one is from CNN which features the IDF spokesman denying that happened except in one spot after people had already been killed by the chaos around the trucks.