The Israel Military Forces released findings on Friday from an investigation into a deadly shooting on Feb. 29 near a humanitarian aid convoy in Gaza.
The incident allegedly left more than 100 people dead and over 760 wounded, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its figures.
Commanding Officer of the Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman, presented the findings of a review into the shooting’s sequence of events to Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi.
“The command review found that IDF troops did not fire at the humanitarian convoy, but did fire at a number of suspects who approached the nearby forces and posed a threat to them,” the IDF said in its release of the findings.
Israel sequence of events on Feb. 29
The IDF released findings from a command review of a deadly incident on Feb. 29 where Israeli troops shot Palestinians who were advancing on them while thousands rushed aid trucks, creating chaos that left more than 100 dead.
The review stated that while the trucks were traveling toward distribution centers in the northern Gaza Strip, a crowd of about 12,000 Palestinians surrounded the vehicles and began looting the equipment being transported. The looting created chaos and caused “incidents of significant harm to civilians,” which included people being trampled and run over by the trucks, according to the IDF.
While the trucks were being crowded, the IDF said there were dozens of Palestinians advancing toward nearby Israeli troops, which “posed a real threat to the forces.”
Warning shots were fired in the direction of the suspects – a statement the IDF has maintained since the incident – but the efforts were unsuccessful.
“As the suspects continued to advance toward them, the troops fired precisely toward a number of the suspects to remove the threat,” the review found, according to the IDF.
The findings of the review remain consistent with what the IDF has said about the deadly shooting since the day it took place.
The Fact Finding and Assessment Mechanism (FFAM) – an independent group responsible for examining what goes on during Israel’s war against Hamas – is continuing to investigate what happened and will form a conclusion.
In addition to releasing the findings of the review, the IDF said it “places great importance to(sic) the humanitarian efforts, and makes many efforts to facilitate humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and to improve the existing mechanisms.”
Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that ignited the ongoing war killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and resulted in the capture of around 250 hostages – some of whom were released during a temporary cease-fire deal in November.
Since launching its assault on Gaza following the attack, Israel has barred entry of food, water, medicine and other supplies, except for a trickle of aid entering the south from Egypt at the Rafah crossing and Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing. Despite international calls to allow in more aid, the number of supply trucks is far less than the 500 that came in daily before the war.
