GLOBAL condemnation has poured in following a recent deadly attack by the Israeli occupation forces on Palestinian civilians seeking food aid in the besieged Gaza Strip, which has been under the illegal regime’s incessant bombardment for the past five months.
At least 112 people were killed and more than 750 others wounded last Thursday as the Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians who had surrounded a convoy of 38 aid trucks in Gaza, with the Palestinian health ministry calling the incident a ‘massacre’.
The latest Israeli crime comes as NGOs and UN experts have on several occasions voiced fears of famine in the besieged territory, which is completely cut off from aid by the occupation since October last year.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday expressed ‘shock’ and ‘seriously’ condemned the attack on Palestinians who had been struggling for aid in Gaza.
‘China is shocked by this incident and strongly condemns it,’ Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said. ‘We express our grief for the victims and our sympathies for the injured.’
Mao also called on the occupying entity to ‘immediately’ implement a ceasefire and protect the safety of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
‘China urges the relevant parties, especially Israel, to cease fire and end the fighting immediately, earnestly protect civilians’ safety, ensure that humanitarian aid can enter, and avoid an even more serious humanitarian disaster,’ the spokeswoman added.
Iran has lashed out the US and the Europeans for their silence over the ‘genocide’ in Gaza, after Israeli forces fired on people on an aid convoy in Gaza City and killed more than 100 Palestinians on Thursday.
In a post on X social media platform, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his ‘strongest condemnation of these shootings and called for truth, justice, and respect for international law’.
Saudi Arabia strongly censured what it called the ‘targeting’ of unarmed civilians, while Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates also issued condemnations.
Qatar warned that Israel’s ‘disregard for Palestinian blood … (will) pave the way for an expanding cycle of violence’.
Turkey said the incident ‘is evidence that Israel aims consciously and collectively to destroy the Palestinian people’.
Spain’s foreign minister said the ‘unacceptable’ events underline the ‘urgency of a ceasefire’, while European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell expressed horror at ‘yet another carnage among civilians in Gaza desperate for humanitarian aid’.
Israel waged its genocidal war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
Since the start of the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has killed 30,035 Palestinians and injured 70,457 others.
The Tel Aviv regime has also imposed a ‘complete siege’ on the territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.
- The United States has once again backed Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, blocking a UN Security Council statement that would have blamed the Israeli forces for killing Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid in the besieged Strip.
The statement, which was drafted by Algeria, was supported by 14 of the 15 council members last Thursday, Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, told reporters.
Algeria called for a UNSC emergency meeting behind closed doors after Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid near al-Nabulsi roundabout in Gaza City earlier on Thursday, killing at least 112 people and injuring hundreds of others.
The US defended its blocking of the motion, citing contradictory reports and a lack of all facts.
‘We don’t have all the facts on the ground – that’s the problem,’ US deputy ambassador Robert Wood told reporters.
The Israeli military claimed that civilians had attacked the aid trucks and scores of people had been trampled.
The claim, however, was disputed by witness accounts.
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas described the Israeli claims as a ‘trivial narrative’ aimed at justifying the ‘horrific massacre’.
Washington has repeatedly vetoed UN resolutions that call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, with the latest time being last Tuesday.
Washington, instead, has been actively pushing for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza to facilitate the release of Israeli captives held by the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.
Israel waged its genocidal war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
Washington has since supplied the regime with more than 10,000 tons of military equipment.
- Israel must ‘fully investigate’ how more than 100 people were killed on Thursday as they waited for food, Germany’s foreign minister has said, as the country becomes the latest to call for clarity over one of the deadliest single incidents in Gaza since the war began.
The Israeli military has given a different account of the circumstances.
‘People wanted supplies for themselves and their families and died. I am devastated by the reports from Gaza,’ German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wrote on X on Friday.
‘The Israeli army must fully investigate how the mass panic and the shooting happened,’ she added. ‘The people there are closer to dying than to being alive. More humanitarian aid needs to be provided.’
Baerbock reiterated her call for a humanitarian ceasefire, writing: ‘A humanitarian ceasefire is finally needed so that the hostages can finally be released from the hands of Hamas and no more people die in Gaza, and aid can be distributed safely.’
- There are growing calls for an independent inquiry following the deaths of more than 100 people in Gaza as they waited for food last Thursday.
The European Union has joined the United Nations to call for an investigation into reports of indiscriminate targeting of civilians in Gaza by the Israeli military, in light of a CNN report.
Here are the latest developments according to the report: Food aid site tragedy where least 112 people were killed and hundreds injured after Israeli forces opened fire as Palestinian civilians waited for food on Thursday.
The tragedy represents one of the deadliest single incidents in Gaza since Israel’s war against Hamas began.
CNN is unable to independently confirm the death toll, and the Israeli military has given a different account of the circumstances.
France’s foreign affairs ministry said in a statement: ‘It is Israel’s responsibility to comply with the rules of international law and to protect the distribution of humanitarian aid to civilian populations.’
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has also condemned the carnage at the food aid site.
The EU has called for an investigation, following the CNN report.
Meanwhile, the EU has joined the UN in calling for an investigation into reports of indiscriminate targeting of civilians in Gaza by the Israeli military.
It comes after a CNN investigation found several members of the Abu Jibba family were killed in January by the shockwave of what was likely a 2,000-pound bomb dropped by the Israeli military.
The Israeli military told CNN it was responding to fire by militants.
The death toll in Gaza has risen to 30,228, after 193 people were killed in 24 hours on Friday, according to the health ministry in the enclave. Friday’s figure was about 100 higher than averages over the past week.
News outlets have called for protection of journalists in Gaza.
The leaders of more than 30 news organisations including CNN, Reuters and BBC News have signed an open letter calling for journalists in Gaza to be protected.
At least 94 journalists – 89 of whom are Palestinians – have been killed since Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
