Israeli troopers “fired exactly” at Gazans who approached them throughout a chaotic scene close to an help convoy in northern Gaza final week that led to the deaths of dozens of Palestinians, however they didn’t hearth on the convoy itself, the Israeli army stated on Friday after an preliminary inside evaluate.
The account differs sharply from these of witnesses and Palestinian officers who described in depth taking pictures after 1000’s of determined Gazans massed round an Israeli-organized help convoy. The deaths prompted world outrage and underscored the widespread starvation and hopelessness in northern Gaza, the place 5 months of battle and little help have pushed many to the brink.
The preliminary evaluate largely matched Israel’s early account of the catastrophe, reiterating its declare that many civilians have been harmed or killed in a stampede as they crowded across the help vans. It stated that Israeli forces had opened hearth towards dozens of Gazans who had approached them.
Gazan officers didn’t instantly reply to the Israeli evaluate.
The Israeli army stated that its evaluate discovered that the troopers had “fired exactly” at individuals who have been approaching them in what it stated was an try and preserve “suspects” at a distance.
“As they continued to strategy, the troops fired to take away the risk,” it stated in a press release summarizing the evaluate’s findings.
Hours after the catastrophe, medical doctors in Gaza described receiving scores of casualties at hospitals within the space, a lot of them killed or wounded by gunfire.
A fact-finding committee appointed by the Israeli army chief of employees will proceed to analyze the episode, the army stated. Some human rights teams say that the Israeli army lacks impartial accountability mechanisms and barely penalizes troopers for harming Palestinians in contested circumstances.
