There is nothing, it seems, that most of us can say at this juncture that will change the terrible course of the war in Gaza, though it is not so much a war as an endless, one-sided bombardment seemingly aimed at erasing Palestinians from most of the strip and, it increasingly also seems, from the West Bank.
Israel and its supporters say that the fact that it is a superior military power (backed to the hilt by U.S. and others) is an advantage that they are entitled to, and insist they are allowed to bomb hospitals, schools, and refugee camps with impunity because Hamas is hiding amongst civilians.
Now, at a time when the world’s gaze has switched to the full-scale war between Israel and Iran, reports say Israel’s forces are shooting at starving people in Gaza who are desperately seeking food in a shortage caused by Israel’s blockades. And, as ever, the stony-faced denials continue.
Its important to note that, in the fog of war, actual misinformation and half-truths can spread like wildfire. Videos are shared without checking for accuracy or provenance. But some news outlets can still interview witnesses on the ground and best gauge what has happened.
According to Reuters, “Israeli tanks fired into a crowd trying to get aid from trucks in Gaza on Tuesday, killing at least 59 people, according to medics, in one of the bloodiest incidents yet in mounting violence as desperate residents struggle for food.”
“Video shared on social media showed around a dozen mangled bodies lying in a street in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. The Israeli military, at war with Hamas-led Palestinian militants in Gaza since October 2023, acknowledged firing in the area and said it was looking into the incident.”
“Witnesses interviewed by Reuters said Israeli tanks had launched at least two shells at a crowd of thousands who had gathered on the main eastern road through Khan Younis in the hope of obtaining food from aid trucks that use the route.
“All of a sudden, they let us move forward and made everyone gather, and then shells started falling, tank shells,” said Alaa, an eyewitness, interviewed by Reuters at Nasser Hospital, where wounded victims lay sprawled on the floor and in corridors due to the lack of space.
The witnesses interviewed by Reuters said two shells were launched into the crowd. A dozen mangled bodies is the inevitable outcome of tanks firing into a thousand of human beings. How can this possibly be justified? Have we become so immune to the brutality of this conflict that it is acceptable to pretend that tanks are used for crowd control purposes?
Israel’s blockade of aid began on March 2nd, saying it sought to pressure Hamas into releasing the remaining hostages taken on October 7th. It also insisted that the UN’s distribution of food was leading to Hamas was diverting aid for its own purposes – a charge UN aid agencies denied, saying that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were facing extreme levels of food insecurity. The truth is that it is likely easy to find an example or several of Hamas stealing aid in the chaos of war, but using hunger as a weapon against 2 million people is obscene.
In the same way, Israel has accused the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNWRA) of not being neutral, and point to the decision of the UN to fire nine staff out of UNRWA’s 17,000 employees under suspicions of being involved in the October 7 attacks. But that 0.05% of the workforce of UNWRA – the exception doesn’t prove the rule.
A new entity, backed by the U.S. and Israel, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), is now in charge of distributing food to the desperate people of Gaza. And the number of Palestinians being shot dead as they seek help from the GHF is steadily increasing. Hundreds have been killed so far, the BBC says.
Israel, as ever, will justify, deny and excuse such killings. After a ‘deadly incident’ in Southern Gaza on June 1st where dozens of Palestinians seeking food aid were shot, the Israel Defense Forces initially denied firing at civilians “while they were near or within the aid site”, but then said that “warning shots” had been fired. CNN reports that:
During a press conference on Tuesday, IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said the military investigated and found its troops played no role in any mass casualty event. Defrin said: “This week, it was claimed that the IDF fired at civilians in an aid distribution area. This report is entirely false and echoes the propaganda of the terrorist organization Hamas… Regarding the incident on Sunday – it simply didn’t happen!”
However, CNN’s own investigation pointed to “Israeli military opening fire on crowds of Palestinians as they tried to make their way to the fenced enclosure to get food”.
More than a dozen eyewitnesses, including those wounded in the attack, said Israeli troops shot at crowds in volleys of gunfire that occurred sporadically through the early hours of Sunday morning. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the US and Israeli-backed aid initiative that runs the site, said that Israeli forces were operating in the area during the same period.
Multiple videos geolocated by CNN place the gunfire near a roundabout where hundreds of Palestinians had gathered about half a mile (800 meters) away from the militarized aid site in Tel al-Sultan in Rafah. The designated route to the site along the coast, Al-Rasheed Street, is in an area under the Israeli military’s control and Israeli troops operate at a base nearby.
Weapons experts said the rate of gunfire heard in the footage, as well as images of bullets retrieved from victims, were consistent with machine guns used by the Israeli military that can be mounted on tanks. Multiple eyewitnesses said that they saw gunfire emanating from Israeli tanks nearby.
None of the videos definitively show who fired shots outside of the aid camp. However, CNN’s review of audiovisual material sheds fresh light on how the pursuit of aid turned chaotic and then dangerous, on the actions of Israeli forces and the consequences of the new aid mechanism, which has been mired in controversy.
To accuse CNN, as pro-Israel responses do, of being pro-Hamas or anti-Semitic is absurd. And apart from the brutality and inhumanity of what’s happening, how can Israel imagine that these actions will not cause even some of their allies to blanch? How can anyone justify shooting at starving, despairing people, begging for food as they are herded into mega aid sites under the new regime?
After one incident, the IDF said that “suspects” had failed to retreat after warning fire and “additional shots were directed near a few individual suspects who advanced towards the troops” – with a statement also claiming that refugees were not following “designated access routes” to the GHF site. But doesn’t this actually get to the heart of the matter: that apart from the utter contempt for international law taking control of food distribution is a public relations disaster for Israel.
Israel – and the GHF – continue to deny that soldiers are shooting at people seeking food, but as BBC note, Israel “does not allow international news organisations, including the BBC, into Gaza, making verifying what is happening in the territory difficult”. Isn’t that rather convenient, especially when the exclusion of reporters is married with a demand that all statements from Israel be treated as gospel, and everything else be viewed as a lie.
These atrocities are causing a shift even in public opinion in the U.S. – one of Israel’s staunchest allies. According to Pew Research’s findings published in April: “the public’s views of Israel have turned more negative over the past three years. More than half of U.S. adults (53%) now express an unfavorable opinion of Israel, up from 42% in March 2022 – before the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023, and the ensuing Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip”.
Benjamin Netanyahu may now insist that there will be no end to the war in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed, but increasingly it looks to a growing section of the public that the real mission is to destroy the people of Palestine. There can be no justification for that.