Second Gaza aid convoy ends in violence, with at least 20 dead

One of the witnesses, Mohammad Hamoudeh, a photographer and journalist in Gaza City, said he did not see any Israeli forces or weapons firing into the crowd. But he said heavy Israeli fire from a distance appeared to be responsible for the casualties.

“The guns and tank shells targeted the civilians,” he said.

“I escaped by a miracle; we have seen death with our eyes,” he said. Referring to the earlier convoy disaster, he said: “It was almost the same scenario as the Nabulsi incident. There were many martyrs. The scene was horrible.”

Even after the bloodshed, people gathered whatever help they could, he said, including bags of bloodied flour.

Ali Al Ajouri, a 16-year-old from Jabaliah, also described the shootings into the crowd. “There were about 30 people gathered in one place and a grenade shot them straight,” he said.

Dr. Eid Sabbah, chief nursing officer at Kamal Adwan Hospital, said: “It was not gunfire. It was heavy weapon ammunition that caused large gaps; this is clearly visible in the entrance and exit wounds.”

Dr. Sabbah said the patients treated at the hospital mainly had chest and head wounds. Doctors there could only stabilize them and keep them alive, he said, and could not perform operations due to the lack of medicines and medical supplies.

Ibrahim Al Najjar, 42, an unemployed taxi driver, said he was in the area around 8pm when a large crowd had gathered. Shelling and shootings soon followed, he said. He said his cousin had been killed and his right arm wounded by shrapnel.

“I was running for my life with others, and then they hit a building next to us,” he said. “We kept running until we reached a few ambulances far away.”

The Israeli military said it was not responsible for the attack. “About an hour before the convoy’s arrival in the humanitarian corridor, armed Palestinians opened fire while Gaza civilians waited for the aid convoy’s arrival,” the army said. “As aid trucks came in, the Palestinian gunmen continued to shoot while the crowds of Gazans began looting the trucks. In addition, a number of Gaza civilians were run over by the trucks.”