Condemnation of Israel grows over shooting during food aid delivery

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Turkey has joined Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan in condemning Israeli forces for shooting desperately hungry Palestinians waiting for the delivery of aid.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry accused Israel of using “starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza.”

At least ۱۱۲ Palestinians were killed and hundreds more wounded, the Health Ministry in Gaza, which is run by the Hamas militant group, said. 

Health officials accused Israeli troops of firing heavily into the crowd, as more than ۸۰ per cent of the wounded brought to one hospital had been struck by gunfire.

Palestinians surround aid trucks in northern Gaza in what officials described the day before as the first major delivery in a month.

AP/AP

They initially reported an Israeli strike on the crowd, but witnesses later said Israeli troops opened fire as people pulled flour and canned goods off of trucks.

According to Israel, many of the dead were trampled in a chaotic crush for food aid, and its troops only fired when they felt endangered by the crowd.

France, Italy, Germany and the United Nations have called for an independent investigation into the attack.

The Secretary-General of the UN, António Guterres has also condemned the incident.

I condemn Thursday’s incident in Gaza in which more than ۱۰۰ people were reportedly killed or injured while seeking life-saving aid.

The desperate civilians in Gaza need urgent help, including those in the north where the @UN has not been able to deliver aid in more than a week.

He wrote on X that they were "killed or injured while seeking life-saving aid".

Guterres admitted that civilians in Gaza need "urgent help" and that the UN has been unable to reach the north of the enclave for more than a week.

The number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip has soared above 30,000 since Israel’s war on Hamas began nearly five months ago after Hamas-led militants stormed across southern Israel on ۷ October, killing ۱۲۰۰ people and taking about ۲۵۰ others hostage.

Israel responded with a blistering offensive in the Gaza Strip that has created a humanitarian catastrophe and devastation in northern areas like Gaza City, which are largely cut off from the rest of the territory with little aid entering.