International calls for an investigation grew on Friday as questions remained a day after at least 112 Palestinians were killed and hundreds more were injured during a chaotic incident involving Israeli soldiers and people seeking humanitarian aid in northern Gaza.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said an “effective independent investigation” is necessary to understand the causes and who was responsible for the horrific events. A White House spokesperson also said the event “needs to be thoroughly investigated."
Palestinian witnesses blamed Israeli troops for opening fire on a mass gathering of people waiting to collect aid from an approaching convoy. Israel disputes the account, saying scores of people trampled each other and were run over by the fleeing aid trucks. A military spokesman said their troops only fired “a few warning shots” to disperse the people.
“No IDF strike was conducted towards the aid convoy,” Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a video posted on the social media platform X on Thursday. He said that Israeli tanks were present to secure a humanitarian corridor for the 38-truck private convoy to pass.
Palestinian U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour called the incident an “outrageous massacre.”
“According to the information that we have, dozens of them have bullets in their heads,” he told reporters Thursday of the people who were at the scene. “It’s not like firing at the sky to restrain people if there was confusion and chaos. It was intentionally targeting and killing.”
The United Nations said a joint team from its humanitarian office, the U.N. Children’s Fund, or UNICEF, and the World Health Organization visited Gaza City’s largest hospital — al Shifa — on Friday.
“They brought with them medicines, vaccines and fuel to help ensure that the medical facility remains functioning,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
Al Shifa has reportedly admitted more than 700 people injured in Thursday’s deadly convoy incident. Dujarric said about 200 of them remained hospitalized.
“By the time of the team's visit, the hospital staff told them they had received the bodies of more than 70 people who had been killed,” Dujarric said. Asked if they had gunshot wounds, he said he did not believe the team examined the bodies of the dead, but of the injured patients they saw being treated, “there were a large number of gunshot wounds.”
Little aid has reached northern Gaza in recent weeks, where about 300,000 people are believed to have remained through the nearly five-month war. Hunger is rampant, and desperation is high. The United Nations has warned that famine is imminent.
U.S. President Joe Biden announced Friday that the United States would begin doing air drops of humanitarian assistance into Gaza.
The Gaza ministry of health reported that four more children died in northern Gaza due to starvation and dehydration, bringing the reported number to 10 this week.
“The unofficial numbers can unfortunately be expected to be higher,” World Health Organization spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told reporters in Geneva. “And once we see them, once we see them registered in hospitals, once we see them registered officially, it’s already further down the line.”
Calls for investigation mount
French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the shootings, saying civilians must be protected, and called for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire.
“There must be an urgent investigation and accountability,” British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said in a statement. “This must not happen again.”
He said Israel has an obligation to ensure “significantly more humanitarian aid” reaches Gazans and called on the government to open more crossings into Gaza and eliminate bureaucratic obstacles.
Germany’s foreign minister expressed shock about the reports.
“The Israeli army must fully explain how the mass panic and shooting could have happened,” Annalena Baerbock said Friday on X. She too called for a cease-fire so civilian lives would not be lost, hostages held by Hamas could be released and aid could be distributed safely.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said she was “deeply disturbed by images from Gaza,” saying in a post on X that every effort must be made to investigate what happened.
Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan condemned Israeli forces for firing on the Palestinians waiting for the delivery of aid.
Turkey’s foreign ministry accused Israel of using "starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza" and said Thursday’s incident is "yet another crime against humanity."
"We therefore call on all those with influence over the Israeli government to stop the ongoing violence in Gaza,” the statement said.
Brazil’s government said Friday that a cease-fire is urgent as well as sufficient quantities of aid for Gazans and the release of all hostages. “Humanity is failing the civilians of Gaza, and it is time to avoid new massacres,” the statement said.
Biden expressed concerns Thursday that the deadly convoy incident could hurt ongoing negotiations to free the remaining hostages held by Hamas and achieve a six-week-long cease-fire.
The latest violence pushed the Palestinian death toll in the nearly five-month war to more than 30,000, with another 71,000 injured and many more missing under the rubble, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
The Gaza war was triggered when Hamas carried out terror attacks inside Israel, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping 250 others, around 100 of whom were released during a brief pause in November.
VOA United Nations Correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report. Some information is from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
