Israel denied accusations that it was responsible for the death of dozens on Thursday after Palestinians claimed that a strike on a crowd of Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid in Gaza City killed at least 104 people.
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Israeli troops opened fire at "several people" among a crowd that surrounded aid trucks in the Gaza Strip after feeling under threat, an Israeli source said on Thursday as Gaza health authorities said dozens waiting for aid were killed by Israeli fire.
Video: Footage from the aid distribution in Gaza / Credit: IDF
In a statement, the Israeli military said dozens of people were injured in pushing and trampling that occurred as they tried to take aid from the trucks. It said the incident was under review.
Video: Hamas operative admits to Israeli hostages being held and Hamas terrorists hiding behind civilians in Nasser Hospital / Credit: X/@IDF
Trucks carrying food reached northern Gaza this week, the first major aid delivery to the area in a month, officials said Wednesday.
Aid groups say it has become nearly impossible to deliver humanitarian assistance in most of Gaza because of the difficulty of coordinating with the Israeli military, ongoing hostilities, and the breakdown of public order, with crowds of desperate people overwhelming aid convoys.
In the wake of Thursday's strike, medics found "dozens or hundreds" lying on the ground, according to Fares Afana, the head of the ambulance service at Kamal Adwan Hospital. He said there were not enough ambulances to collect all the dead and wounded and that some were being brought to hospitals in donkey carts.
The Al-Jazeera network showed footage of several dead and wounded people being brought to another nearby hospital, Shifa, after the strike on a main road running along the Mediterranean coast. In addition to the dozens killed, another 280 people were wounded in Thursday's strike, Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said.
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