NGOs demand investigation into Gaza mass killing by Israeli military during aid distribution

Refugees International is calling for an immediate independent investigation into the apparent mass killing of civilians on Thursday by the Israeli military during an attempted aid distribution in Gaza City.

“The United States should pause military assistance to Israel pending the completion of the investigation and accountability for those responsible,” Refugees International said in a statement. “At face value, the incident appears to be an unambiguous war crime. It is difficult to see what mitigating circumstances might alter that assessment. There is nothing that can justify the killing of civilians desperate to receive lifesaving relief for their families.”

Israeli forces opened fire while a crowd was gathered on Thursday near a convoy of trucks carrying desperately needed aid to Gaza City, part of a chaotic scene in which scores of people were killed and injured, according to Gazan health officials and the Israeli military.

The details of what happened were unclear, with officials from both sides offering starkly different accounts. The Gazan health ministry said in a statement that more than 100 people were killed and more than 700 injured in a “massacre.” Israeli military officials said most of the casualties were from a stampede of Gazans as they crushed around the aid trucks and that soldiers had fired only after a crowd separately approached them in a threatening way.

Around 100 people with gunshot wounds were brought to Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza City, according to its director, Husam Abu Safiya, and injured people were being brought to other hospitals in the north. Abu Safiya said that the hospital had also received 12 bodies of people killed by gunfire.

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 tragedy comes amidst a wider context of prolonged and intentional Israeli besiegement and collective punishment of Gaza’s civilians, particularly in Gaza City and other northern areas. Israel has strictly limited aid deliveries to the north for several months.

As a result, one in four households in Gaza, around a half a million people, are experiencing catastrophic-level hunger.

The level of hunger in Gaza accounts for the “highest share of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity that the IPC initiative has ever classified for any given area or country,” Refugees International said.

A recent assessment shows that one in six children in the north face acute malnutrition, and 3 percent suffer from severe wasting. UNRWA reports that it has not been permitted to conduct a food distribution in the north since January 23.

The UN World Food Programme announced on February 20 that it was temporarily suspending all deliveries to the north after its convoys were swarmed en route to delivery areas it had been prevented from accessing for weeks.

Notably, this WFP incident did not produce a mass casualty event. 

This strategy of deprivation has produced growing desperation and numerous reports of public order breaking down. U.S. humanitarian envoy David Satterfield recently raised public concerns about the ability to safely distribute aid within Gaza.  

“The IDF’s conduct in Gaza has created an atmosphere of impunity for violations of the laws of war,” Refugees International said. “Large-scale killing of civilians has been normalized in the course of its military operations. IDF soldiers have posted countless photos and videos on social media of themselves mocking and humiliating the Palestinian population – many of which constitute war crimes evidence in their own right. Today’s violence occurs amid a consistent backdrop of undisciplined impunity.

“This tragedy is a direct and inevitable consequence of Israel’s approach to the war in Gaza. The Netanyahu government has pursued a strategy of deprivation, indifference to civilian harm, and impunity, all implemented by provably undisciplined forces. The only surprise is that a tragedy of this nature had not happened sooner.”