Friday, August 30, 2024

TARGETED KILLING = WAR CRIME

Israeli strike on Gaza aid convoy kills four Palestinians, US group says

Fri, August 30, 2024
By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An Israeli air strike on an aid convoy carrying food and fuel to a Gaza hospital killed four Palestinians on Thursday, U.S.-based aid group Anera said as Israel claimed they were "armed assailants," which the group denied.

The four Palestinians were in the lead vehicle of an Anera aid convoy bound for the Emirati Red Crescent Hospital in Rafah in southern Gaza, the aid group said in a statement on Friday.


Soon after the convoy left the Israel-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza, four Palestinians from the community "took control of the leading vehicle, citing concern that the route was unsafe and at risk of being looted," Anera said.

"Israeli authorities allege that the lead car was carrying numerous weapons. Every initial report from those at the scene indicate that no weapons were present," the organization said.

A plan agreed with Israeli authorities called for unarmed security guards in the convoy. The four had not been vetted nor coordinated with Israeli authorities, but the convoy did not perceive them as a threat, Anera said.

Anera said there was no warning or communication before the Israeli airstrike. No Anera staff were injured. After the four were killed, the rest of the convoy delivered the aid, it said.

In a statement quoted by multiple media outlets, the Israel Defense Forces said: "A number of armed assailants seized control of the vehicle in the front of the convoy... and began to lead it."

"After the takeover and further verification that a precise strike on the armed assailants' vehicle could be carried out, a strike was conducted," the IDF said.

The Israeli military and the Israeli embassy in Washington could not immediately be reached for further comment.

Aid and humanitarian organizations have been hit previously in Israel's Gaza war. In April, three Israeli strikes hit a convoy of aid vehicles, killing seven World Central Kitchen staff. The United Nations World Food Programme said this week that one of its vehicles was hit by 10 bullets near an Israeli military checkpoint.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7 when Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's subsequent assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has since killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry. Nearly the entire Gaza population of 2.3 million has been displaced and the enclave has a hunger crisis. Israel faces genocide allegations at the World Court that it denies.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Israeli strike kills 4 Palestinians in an aid convoy to a Gaza hospital. Israel says men were armed.

Jon Gambrell
Fri, August 30, 2024 


DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Israeli military strike hit the first vehicle in a convoy carrying medical supplies and fuel to an Emirati hospital in the Gaza Strip, killing four Palestinians from a local transportation company, officials said Friday.

The Israeli military insisted the four men were carrying weapons while the American Near East Refugee Aid group said the missile strike on Thursday came without any warning or prior communication with soldiers.

The incident underlines the chaotic situation prevailing in the Gaza Strip and the dangers posed to aid groups since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.

Over 80% of the Palestinian territory’s 2.3 million people have been displaced, with most now living in squalid tent camps. International experts say hundreds of thousands of people are on the brink of famine.

The strike happened as the aid group was bringing supplies to the Emirates Red Crescent Hospital in the town of Rafah, said Sandra Rasheed, Anera’s director for the Palestinian territories. It hit the convoy's first vehicle on the Salah al-Din Road, she said.

“The convoy, which was coordinated by Anera and approved by Israeli authorities, included an Anera employee who was fortunately unharmed,” Rasheed said in a statement. “Despite this devastating incident, our understanding is that the remaining vehicles in the convoy were able to continue and successfully deliver the aid to the hospital. We are urgently seeking further details about what happened.”

A later statement from Anera said four Palestinians were killed. The group said its “coordinated and cleared transport plan called for unarmed security guards in the convoy" with its local partner, a company called Move One.

“Shortly after departing Kerem Shalom, initial reports indicate that four community members with experience in previous missions and engagement in community security with Move One stepped forward and requested to take command of the leading vehicle, citing concern that the route was unsafe and at risk of being looted,” Anera said.

“The four community members were neither vetted nor coordinated in advance, and Israeli authorities allege that the lead car was carrying numerous weapons. The Israeli airstrike was carried out without any prior warning or communication.”

Anera did not elaborate. Other aid convoys have been beset by armed gangs and those desperate for food in Gaza.

The Israeli military, responding to questions from The Associated Press, said it had been “monitoring the situation” and saw “armed individuals joined one of the cars of an Anera convoy and began to lead the convoy.”

“We stress, that the presence of armed individuals was not coordinated, and they were not part of the pre-coordinated convoy — as noted in Anera's statement regarding the incident,” the Israeli military said. “After ruling out potential harm to the trucks, as well as a clear identification of weapons, a strike was carried out targeting the armed individuals.”

The Israeli military did not address why it didn't contact Anera before conducting the strike.

The United Arab Emirates, which reached a diplomatic recognition deal with Israel in 2020 and has been providing aid to Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began, did not comment on the attack.

Israeli forces have opened fire on other aid convoys in the Gaza Strip. The World Food Program announced Wednesday it is pausing all staff movement in Gaza until further notice over Israeli troops opening fire on one of its marked vehicles, hitting it with at least 10 rounds. The shooting came despite having received multiple clearances from Israeli authorities.

On July 23, UNICEF said two of its vehicles were hit with live ammunition while waiting at a designated holding point. An Israeli attack in April hit three World Central Kitchen vehicles, killing seven people.

Hamas' Oct. 7 attack killed some 1,200 people in Israel and saw 250 others taken hostage. The devastating Israel offensive in Gaza since then has killed over 40,000 Palestinians and raised fears of a regional war breaking out.

Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press




Aid agency says men killed by Israeli airstrike on convoy were a local escort

Julian Borger in Jerusalem
Fri, August 30, 2024 

People wait to receive humanitarian aid in central Gaza City on 27 August.
Photograph: Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP/Getty Images

An aid agency whose convoy was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Thursday has said that the four men killed were local community members who had asked to serve as an escort for the convoy.

The four men were the only casualties from the strike, which hit the lead vehicle in which they were travelling. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) described them as “armed assailants” who had hijacked the convoy.

The incident has highlighted the dangers being faced daily by humanitarian workers trying to deliver life-saving assistance in Gaza, under the threat of looting and assault by armed gangs and desperate civilians, while risking coming under fire from Israeli forces on the ground or drones patrolling the skies.

The convoy was organised by a US-based NGO, Anera, which has been serving refugees and victims of violence in the region for more than 50 years. It had partnered with a Dubai-based logistics company, Move One, to organise the convoy bringing medical supplies and fuel to an Emirati-run hospital in the southernmost city of Rafah.

The convoy was on the way to the hospital when the lead vehicle was hit by an apparent drone strike.

Its route had been coordinated in advance with the IDF, under a deconfliction process intended to prevent aid vehicles from being bombed. But, according to an Anera statement on Friday, shortly after the convoy had crossed into Gaza, four men from the local community who had worked with Move One before “stepped forward and requested to take command of the leading vehicle, citing concern that the route was unsafe and at risk of being looted”.

In an earlier statement, Anera had described the Palestinian men as Move One employees, but on Friday it characterised them as “four community members with experience in previous missions and engagement in community security with Move One”.

“The four community members were neither vetted nor coordinated in advance, and Israeli authorities allege that the lead car was carrying numerous weapons,” the new statement said, without addressing the allegation that the men were armed.

“Anera and Move One are in close communication and are working together to determine all the facts,” it said, adding: “The Israeli airstrike was carried out without any prior warning or communication.”

Anera’s president and chief executive, Sean Carroll, said: “According to all the information we have, this is a case of partners on the ground endeavouring to deliver aid successfully. This should not come at the cost of people’s lives.”

An IDF statement on Thursday confirmed that the route had been agreed, but claimed that “during the convoy’s movement, a number of armed assailants seized control of the vehicle in the front of the convoy [a Jeep] and began to lead it”.

It added: “After the takeover and further verification that a precise strike on the armed assailants’ vehicle can be carried out, a strike was conducted.

“No damage was caused to the other vehicles in the convoy and it reached its destination as planned. The strike on the armed assailants removed the threat of them seizing control over the humanitarian convoy.”

The IDF claimed that it had contacted Anera after the incident and that the aid organisation had “verified that all of the convoy’s organisation members and humanitarian aid were safe and reached their destination as planned”.

Anera confirmed that the convoy did reach the hospital, but said only one person travelling in the convoy had been an Anera employee.

The airstrike came hours after Israeli soldiers opened fire on a World Food Programme (WFP) vehicle clearly marked with UN insignia and travelling in a convoy of two.

The WFP said the vehicle was hit by at least 10 bullets as it approached an IDF checkpoint at Wadi Gaza. The vehicle was armoured with reinforced glass and no one inside was injured, but the agency temporarily suspended the movement of its staff around Gaza.

At a UN security council meeting on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, the US deputy ambassador, Robert Wood, expressed alarm at the shooting of a WFP vehicle and said Israel has told Washington that an initial review suggested the shooting was “a result of a communication error” between military units.

On 23 July, the UN children welfare and protection agency, Unicef, said two of its vehicles were hit with live ammunition while waiting at an army-designated holding area in Gaza.

On 1 April, the IDF killed seven aid workers in a drone attack on a convoy run by the World Central Kitchen charity.

The IDF later admitted to “grave errors” by its officers, firing two of them, and conceded that it had been informed of the planned convoy in advance but said the information had not been passed down to operational units.

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