Pressure mounted on Israel on Friday over the deaths of dozens of Palestinians during a confused incident in the Gaza Strip in which crowds surrounded a convoy of aid trucks and soldiers opened fire, with several countries backing a U.N. call for an inquiry.
Gaza health authorities said Israeli forces had killed more than 100 people trying to reach a relief convoy near Gaza City early on Thursday, with famine looming nearly five months into the war that began with a Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
Israel blamed most of the deaths on crowds that swarmed around aid trucks, saying victims had been trampled or run over. An Israeli official also said troops had “in a limited response” later fired on crowds they felt had posed a threat.
Although the accounts of what happened differed sharply, the incident has underscored the collapse of orderly aid deliveries in areas of Gaza occupied by Israeli forces, with no administration in place and the main U.N. agency UNRWA hamstrung by an inquiry into alleged links with Hamas.
“We’ve asked the government of Israel to investigate, and it’s our assessment that they’re taking this seriously,” U.S. national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Friday.
“They are looking into what occurred, so as to avoid tragedies like this from happening again.” He said the Biden administration trusted Israel to complete its own investigation, adding that “we don’t have enough information” to verify its account of what happened.
The Hamas attack on Oct. 7 killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and involved the seizure of 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s military campaign has since killed more than 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza, health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave say.
With a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza, many countries have urged a ceasefire, but U.S. President Joe Biden said Thursday’s incident will complicate talks for a deal involving a truce and hostage release.
India said it was “deeply shocked” at the deaths and Brazil said the incident was beyond “ethical or legal limits.”
South Africa, which has brought a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, condemned the deaths. Israel denies genocide.
