When relief supplies arrived

Israeli army fired into crowd

This Israeli Defense Forces photograph shows the crowd of people crowded around the trucks carrying aid supplies.(Bild: AP)

Israeli soldiers fired into the crowd because they felt threatened by people who had brought trucks with aid supplies into the Gaza Strip. Reports speak of dozens of deaths.

According to the Hamas-controlled health authority in the Gaza Strip, more than a hundred people are said to have been killed and several hundred injured. The Egyptian government accused Israel of opening fire on the waiting crowd. Saudi Arabia and Jordan also criticized Israel for the incident.

Israel: people wanted to loot trucks
The Israeli military confirmed the incident to the daily newspaper "Haaretz". Numerous residents had crowded around trucks carrying aid supplies in order to loot them. Dozens were killed and injured as a result of jostling and crowding.

(Bild: AP)

UN calls for investigation
The United Nations is calling for an investigation, according to a spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres in New York on Thursday. "There will be a time for accountability," added Stephane Dujarric. United Nations staff were not present at the incident, they did not know all the facts and were aware that there were different accounts.

"As far as we are concerned, we don't know exactly what happened and whether people were hit by Israeli gunfire and died, whether they were pushed down by a crowd or whether they were run over by trucks," UN spokesperson Dujarric continued. UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the incident. "The desperate civilians in Gaza urgently need help, including those in the besieged north, where the United Nations has been unable to provide assistance for more than a week," he said. The UN chief also said he was "appalled" that 30,000 people had already been killed and another 70,000 injured in the Gaza war, according to the health authority. The UN spokesperson reiterated that the United Nations assumes that the figures are correct.