Netanyahu Denies Haaretz Report That Troops Ordered to Shoot At Gaza Aid/ Newslooks/ WASHINGTON/ J. Mansour/ Morning Edition/ Israeli PM Netanyahu denies reports soldiers were ordered to shoot Palestinians seeking aid in Gaza. Over 500 Palestinians have died trying to reach humanitarian sites amid chaos and violence. UN urges ceasefire as Gaza’s humanitarian crisis worsens.
Quick Look
- Netanyahu calls Haaretz report “malicious falsehoods defaming” Israel’s military
- Over 500 Palestinians killed seeking aid amid Gaza chaos
- UN chief urges ceasefire, calls aid system a “crisis”
Netanyahu Rejects Report Alleging Israeli Troops Ordered to Shoot Palestinians Seeking Gaza Aid
Deep Look
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz on Friday sharply denied a report by the left-leaning Israeli newspaper Haaretz claiming Israeli soldiers were ordered to shoot at Palestinians approaching aid distribution sites in Gaza. Both leaders called the article’s allegations “malicious falsehoods designed to defame” the Israeli military.
The report comes amid soaring humanitarian needs in Gaza, where over 500 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds more wounded while attempting to access food since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began distributing aid about a month ago, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Palestinian witnesses say Israeli troops have fired on crowds trying to reach the aid sites. The Israeli military, while acknowledging investigations into incidents where civilians were harmed, firmly rejected Haaretz’s claim of “deliberate fire toward civilians.”
GHF, supported by an American private contractor, has been distributing food boxes at four southern Gaza locations for the past month.
“GHF is not aware of any of these incidents, but these allegations are too grave to ignore and we therefore call on Israel to investigate them and transparently publish the results in a timely manner,” the organization said on social media.
Chaos and violence have plagued the distribution efforts, as thousands of desperate Palestinians trek for hours through Israeli-controlled zones where witnesses say soldiers fire warning shots — or worse — to control the surging crowds.
The director of Shifa Hospital, Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmyiha, told the Associated Press that eight bodies were brought to the hospital Friday from a GHF aid site in Netzarim. However, it was unclear how those individuals died. A GHF spokesperson disputed reports of any incident occurring at or near their sites on Friday.
Separately, Shifa Hospital also received 20 bodies from Israeli airstrikes across northern Gaza the same day.
Mohammad Fawzi, a displaced resident from Rafah, described to the AP how he reached the Shakoush aid site early Thursday only to come away empty-handed.
“We’ve been shot at since 6 a.m. up until 10 a.m. just to get aid, and only some people were able to receive it. There are martyrs and injured people. The situation is difficult,” Fawzi said.
Doctors Without Borders condemned the current distribution system as “a slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid,” demanding it be shut down immediately.
Since the March 18 ceasefire collapsed, more than 6,000 people have died and over 20,000 have been wounded in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry. Since the start of the war, more than 56,000 Palestinians have been killed and 132,000 injured. The Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and militants but reports that women and children make up over half of the casualties.
Israel maintains that it targets only militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths, accusing the group of embedding fighters in civilian areas.
The war erupted after Hamas led a deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking roughly 250 hostages. About 50 hostages remain in Gaza.
Friday’s violence included an Israeli airstrike near the Martyrs Roundabout in Bureij Camp, central Gaza, killing six and wounding ten, according to officials at Awda Hospital in Nuseirat.
Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres urged leaders to show “political courage” and reach a ceasefire similar to the recent one between Israel and Iran. He called for a return to the U.N.’s established aid distribution system, warning that Israeli military operations have created “a humanitarian crisis of horrific proportions.”
“The search for food must never be a death sentence,” Guterres told reporters at the United Nations on Friday.
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