Israeli troops in the northern Gaza Strip opened fire on Palestinians scrambling for food aid in a chaotic incident on February 29 that killed more than 100 people, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
While there were conflicting reports of how the pre-dawn incident unfolded, the Israeli military said a "scramble" and chaos ensued after thousands of Gazans surrounded a convoy of 38 aid trucks, resulting in dozens of deaths and injuries, including some people being run over.
An Israeli source said the military opened fire on the crowd, believing it "posed a threat".
Gaza's health ministry condemned the "massacre" in Gaza City, saying 112 people were killed and more than 750 wounded.
- US "demands answers" -
US President Joe Biden said the incident would complicate delicate ceasefire talks in the nearly five-month war, and the White House called the deaths "extremely troubling".
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters that the United States is "urgently seeking additional information about exactly what happened."
Washington will closely monitor the upcoming investigation and "demand answers," he said.
- France says fire 'unjustified' -
France's foreign ministry said "the shooting by Israeli soldiers against civilians trying to access food is unjustified".
French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on social media X that Palestinian "civilians have been targeted by Israeli soldiers" and expressed his "strongest condemnation" of the killings.
- Turkey condemned the shooting as a "crime against humanity" -
Turkey has accused Israel of committing "another crime against humanity" and condemned Gazans to "starvation" as civilians struggle for dwindling food supplies.
"The fact that Israel... this time is targeting innocent civilians queuing for humanitarian aid is proof that (Israel) aims to deliberately and collectively destroy the Palestinian people," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
- Colombia ends arms purchases from Israel -
Colombian President Gustavo Petro condemned what he called a "genocide" against the Palestinian people and suspended arms purchases from Israel, a key supplier of the country's security forces.
"Demanding for food, more than 100 Palestinians were killed by (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu. This is called genocide and reminds of the Holocaust," Petro wrote in X.
"The world must block Netanyahu". - - Spain condemned the "unacceptable" incident -
"The unacceptable nature of what happened in Gaza, in which dozens of Palestinian civilians died while waiting for food, underlines the urgent need for a ceasefire," Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albarez wrote in X.
- Italy demanded an "immediate ceasefire" -
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani called for an "immediate ceasefire" in Gaza and called on Israel to protect the Palestinian population after the "tragic deaths".
"We urge Israel to protect the people of Gaza and strictly establish the facts and responsibility for the incident," he told X.
Prime Minister Georgia Meloni expressed her "deep alarm and concern" at the February 29 violence in Gaza.
- Condemnation by the UN -
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the incident and was "shocked by the tragic human toll of the conflict," his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
"Desperate civilians in Gaza need urgent aid, including those in the besieged north, where the UN has been unable to deliver aid for more than a week," Dujarric said.
- The EU condemned the "bloodshed" -
European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell condemned the deaths as "totally unacceptable".
"I am horrified by the news of yet another massacre of civilians in Gaza who are in desperate need of humanitarian aid," he told X.
- Qatar condemned the "heinous massacre" -
Qatar's foreign ministry condemned "in the strongest possible terms the monstrous massacre carried out by the Israeli occupation", calling for "urgent international action" to stop the fighting in Gaza.
It further warned that Israel's "disregard for Palestinian life... will ultimately undermine international efforts to implement the two-state solution, and thus pave the way for an extension of the cycle of violence in the region." ".
- Saudi Arabia called for a ceasefire -
Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry condemned the deaths and reiterated "the need for an immediate ceasefire".
It renewed "its requests to the international community to take a firm position to oblige Israel to comply with international humanitarian law, immediately open safe humanitarian corridors, allow the evacuation of the wounded and enable the delivery of humanitarian aid"./BGNES
