The director of a Gazan hospital and the Ministry of Health of the Gaza Strip, administered by Hamas, reported on Thursday February 29 the death of dozens of people during a distribution of food aid in the Gaza City, Thursday February 29.
The emergency director of Al-Shifa Hospital, Amjad Aliwa, announced that 50 people were killed and more than 120 injured, “including women and children, following shooting by occupying forces towards thousands of citizens” rushing towards “aid trucks”. The Israeli army, in a message broadcast on Telegramdoes not mention, for his part, any shooting, but declares that inhabitants of Gaza had surrounded the trucks and looted the supplies delivered and writes that“during the incident, dozens of Gazans were injured by shoving and trampling”.
THE Ministry of Health of the Gaza Strip administered by Hamas, for its part, described the situation as “massacre” and announced at least 104 dead and 760 injured. Witnesses also reported to Agence France-Presse (AFP) scenes during which thousands of people rushed towards aid trucks arriving in “Nablus roundabout”in the west of Gaza City.
2.2 million people at risk of famine
The United Nations (UN) estimates that 2.2 million people, the vast majority of Gaza’s population, are threatened with famine, particularly in the north, where destruction, fighting and looting make almost impossible to deliver humanitarian aid.
According to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), just over 2,300 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip in February, a drop of around 50% compared to January. and a daily average of some 82 trucks per day. According to the UN, around 500 trucks entered the Gaza Strip on average daily before the war began on October 7, when the needs of the local population were lower.
Palestinians in Gaza have told AFP in recent days that they are forced to eat leaves or fodder for livestock, or even slaughter draft animals for food. The head of the UN humanitarian aid coordination office for the Palestinian territories, Andrea De Dominico, recently told AFP that on several occasions when food convoys arrived in the north from Gaza, “thousands of people blocked the trucks to unload them at the risk of being shot”.