USA, Germany and France call for investigation into the deaths of civilians waiting for help in Gaza | Israel

The United States and Germany have called for an exhaustive investigation into what happened on Thursday in Gaza City, in the north of the territory, where aid has arrived with much more difficulty than in the south, with desperate people trying to reach relief trucks. aid and Israeli shots were fired at one point, leading to the deaths of more than a hundred people. France went further and even called for an independent investigation.

On Thursday, more than a hundred Palestinians died in circumstances that are not yet fully understood. It is known that they surrounded the trucks of an aid convoy (there were 38), that at one point an Israeli tank fired at civilians (the Israeli Army says that they headed towards them, feeling that their lives were at risk ), it is not clear whether the panic preceded the shooting or was caused by it.

The North of the Gaza Strip has received much less humanitarian aid, and there are people eating herbs or cereals that would be used to feed animals, or digging the earth to try to access the pipes to get water – it is even greater desperation than in the South .

Various voices, from analysts to non-governmental organizations, have said that whatever happened, these deaths as they occurred are Israel’s responsibility. And they have the potential to be a turning point in the war.

At the HaaretzAmos Harel writes that, “since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip, a danger that has been hovering came to fruition on Thursday: an accident that caused mass deaths in a clash between the Israel Defense Forces and Palestinian civilians, which will affect the continuation of the fighting and reduce the possibilities that Israel has available.”

There have been, in recent weeks, “intense talks between Israel and the international community to try to alleviate in some way” the situation in the North of the Gaza Strip “and find ways to distribute aid safely”, says Harel. And he adds: “There is a paradox here: in areas controlled by Hamas, the distribution of aid is more orderly, but the organization also loots supplies. However, without organization, the chaos is even greater.”

Also on Thursday, White House spokeswoman Olivia Dalton said that the United States had asked the Israeli government to carry out a “thorough investigation” into what happened around the aid trucks in Gaza City and of the circumstances that led to the shootings

Journalist Barak Ravid, from site Axios, recalled on the social network X that the White House had already warned Israel about the potential consequences of a situation of chaos and despair and what happened showed the reason for the warning.

“The United States asked Israel for several weeks for a viable plan to maintain basic security in areas of Gaza where military operations have concluded. of the Israeli Army against Hamas”, as in much of the North of the Gaza Strip, added the White House spokeswoman. “We have not yet seen these plans and this causes us great concern.”

From Germany, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said it was necessary to know what happened. “The reports from Gaza shocked me. The Israeli Army must fully explain how the mass panic and shooting could have happened.” Baerbock said that the “immediate” entry of humanitarian aid was needed and called for a “humanitarian ceasefire” that would also allow the release of Israeli hostages still in the Gaza Strip.

From France the request went further: Paris really wants an “independent investigation”, declared the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stéphane Séjourné.

“We will ask for explanations, and there will have to be an independent investigation to determine what happened,” Séjourné told France Inter radio. “France calls things by their names. That applies when we designate Hamas as the terrorist group, but we also have to call things by their name when there are atrocities in Gaza.”

From the European Union, Josep Borrell, responsible for Foreign Policy, said he was horrified by “another death among civilians in Gaza desperate for humanitarian aid”. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, declared that she was “deeply disturbed by the images from Gaza”, adding that “every effort must be made to investigate what happened and ensure transparency”.