Gaza’s health ministry called it a “massacre” and said 112 people were killed and more than 750 others wounded.
French President Emmanuel Macron, in a post on social media platform X, expressed his “strongest condemnation of these shootings and call for truth, justice, and respect for international law”.
Iran denounced “the barbaric attack by the Zionist regime”, China said it was “shocked”, and the head of the Arab League said the “brutal” act showed “total contempt for human life”.
![A still image shows Palestinians transporting casualties following what Palestinian health officials said was Israeli fire on people waiting for aid, in Gaza City on Thursday. Photo: Reuters TV via Reuters](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/03/01/d0c964cd-9df6-42eb-a72b-9b8c96ead105_e5d6c280.jpg)
US President Joe Biden said Washington was checking “two competing versions” of the incident which occurred early Thursday in northern Gaza, where famine threatens after nearly five months of war between Israel and Hamas militants.
A US State Department spokesman said aerial footage of the incident made clear “just how desperate the situation on the ground is”. Washington was pushing Israel to allow in more aid, he said.
China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said China was shocked by the incident and strongly condemned the killing of Palestinians during an aid delivery.
“China urges the relevant parties, especially Israel, to cease fire and end the fighting immediately, earnestly protect civilians’ safety, ensure that humanitarian aid can enter, and avoid an even more serious humanitarian disaster,” Mao said.
The deaths came after the World Food Programme’s deputy executive director Carl Skau told the UN Security Council on Tuesday: “If nothing changes, a famine is imminent in northern Gaza.”
While the situation is particularly acute in Gaza’s north, Gazans are struggling for food, water and medical care throughout the territory, including in far-south Rafah where around 1.4 million people have sought refuge from fighting elsewhere.
Israel is threatening to send in troops against Hamas fighters in Rafah.
The war began on October 7 with a Hamas attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, Israeli figures show.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed more than 30,000 people, according to the health ministry, which reported early Friday another 83 people killed in strikes overnight.
Israel’s military says 242 soldiers have died in Gaza since ground operations began in late October.
The Gaza City aid incident would complicate efforts to broker a truce, Biden said.
The White House said it spoke with Qatari and Egyptian leaders – fellow mediators – in separate phone calls to discuss both the ceasefire and the “tragic and alarming” incident.
The UN Security Council held a closed-door emergency meeting on the incident, which United States deputy ambassador to the UN Robert Wood condemned before entering the chamber.
Washington has three times blocked Security Council resolutions for a ceasefire in Gaza.
“This outrageous massacre is a testimony to the fact that as long as the Security Council is paralysed” and vetoes cast, “then it is costing the Palestinian people their lives,” Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour said ahead of the Council meeting.
Separately, Saudi Arabia strongly condemned what it called the “targeting” of unarmed civilians, while Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates also issued condemnations.
Qatar warned that Israel’s “disregard for Palestinian blood … [will] pave the way for an expanding cycle of violence”.
Further afield, in South America, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced the suspension of arms purchases from Israel after the “genocide” in Gaza City.
Israeli response gone ‘too far’, Singapore to donate more aid to Gaza: minister
Israeli response gone ‘too far’, Singapore to donate more aid to Gaza: minister
“Asking for food, more than 100 Palestinians were killed by [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu. This is called genocide and recalls the Holocaust,” Petro wrote on X.
“The world must block Netanyahu.”
A witness, declining to be named for safety reasons, said the violence began when thousands of people rushed towards aid trucks at the city’s Nabulsi roundabout, with soldiers firing at the crowd “as people came too close” to tanks.
Israeli army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the military had fired “a few warning shots” to try to disperse a crowd that had “ambushed” the aid trucks.
When the crowd got too big, he said the convoy tried to retreat and “the unfortunate incident resulted in dozens of Gazans killed and injured”.
Aerial images released by the Israeli army showed what it said were scores of people surrounding aid trucks in the city.
![In this screen grab taken from video and released by the Israeli army on Thursday, Palestinians surround aid trucks in northern Gaza in what officials described the day before as the first major delivery in a month. Photo: IDF via AP](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/03/01/5bcd017d-97af-4912-9c33-7b4dbc536d80_a66cec46.jpg)
Ali Awad Ashqir, who said he had gone to get some food for his starving family, said he had been waiting for two hours when trucks began to arrive.
“The moment they arrived, the occupation army fired artillery shells and guns,” he said.
Hagari denied Israeli forces carried out any shelling or strikes at the time.
Looting of aid trucks has previously occurred in northern Gaza, where residents have taken to eating animal fodder and even leaves to stave off starvation.
The chief of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said no UN agency had been involved in Thursday’s aid delivery, and called the incident “another day from hell”.