Early Thursday in Gaza City, at least 112 Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid were killed, with scores more injured, according to witnesses and Gazan health officials. They attributed the casualties to Israeli fire, although Israel disputed this claim, stating that many were crushed and run over by aid trucks in the chaos.The recent escalation brings the Palestinian death toll in the nearly five-month conflict to over 30,000, with an additional 70,000 injured and numerous individuals still missing under collapsed structures, as reported by the Gaza Health Ministry under Hamas control. Initially, Gaza hospital officials reported an Israeli strike on the crowd at the al-Nabusi roundabout in the western part of Gaza City. However, witnesses later asserted that Israeli troops fired upon the crowd as people scrambled to collect flour and canned goods from aid trucks.
Little aid has reached northern Gaza in recent weeks and hunger is rampant. The United Nations has warned that famine is imminent. Initially, Israeli officials acknowledged that troops opened fire, saying they did so because they thought the people rushing toward the aid trucks "posed a threat."But in a video statement posted later Thursday to the social media platform X, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces said troops fired only “a few warning shots” to disperse the people. “No IDF strike was conducted towards the aid convoy,” spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said, adding that Israeli tanks were present to secure a humanitarian corridor for the 38-truck convoy to pass. The IDF also initially said that "dozens were killed and injured from pushing, trampling and being run over by the trucks." Hagari echoed that, saying “thousands” of Gazans descended on the aid convoy. “Some began violently pushing and even trampling other Gazans to death, looting the humanitarian supplies,” Hagari said. He said the aid was to be distributed by private contractors and that the IDF had carried out similar relief operations for the past four nights without incident. "This latest event needs to be thoroughly investigated," White House spokesperson Olivia Dalton told reporters aboard Air Force One, traveling with President Joe Biden to the U.S.-Mexico border. Dalton called the incident in northern Gaza “tremendously alarming and of deep concern to us.” She said the loss of life was “deeply tragic.”