News items tend to have a very short “shelf-life.” Their predetermined expiry date generally condemns them to oblivion.
A case in point is the
Al-Rashid Street imbroglio.
A report in The Economist
described the incident as follows-
“Early on
February 29th death descended on a coastal road in Gaza. As many as 112
people were killed and hundreds more were injured, according to the Hamas-run
health ministry, when catastrophe befell an aid convoy of 30 trucks carrying desperately needed food. As
with many events in the war between Israel and Hamas, the facts are destined to
remain fiercely contested. Nonetheless,
this tragedy’s importance will go far beyond the immediate loss of life. The
images of hungry people jostling for food illustrate the dearth of aid reaching
Gaza. The anarchic circumstances surrounding so many deaths highlight a power
vacuum there that no one, least of all Israel, knows how to fill. And another
civilian calamity will test America’s appetite for letting the war rumble on.
The
incident was in northern Gaza, where the IDF
has dominated for months. All agree the deaths occurred after the food convoy
had passed an Israeli checkpoint and was surrounded by thousands of hungry
civilians. Accounts differ over what happened next. Palestinian eye-witnesses
say IDF soldiers
fired on the crowd, killing some and sparking a stampede that claimed more
lives. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, called it an “ugly massacre
conducted by the Israeli occupation army”.
A margin note- Claims made
by the Hamas-run health ministry, Palestinian eye-witnesses accounts and the
comment made by Mahmoud Abbas should be taken with “a large pinch of salt.” They are predictable, better put as- “My mind is made up.
Don’t confuse me with the facts.”
Military theorist Carl von
Clausewitz opined, “Many intelligence reports in war are contradictory; even
more are false, and most are uncertain .... In short, most intelligence is
false.” Admittedly, when Clausewitz wrote his remarks during the early
nineteenth century, intelligence reports were based mostly on messages carried
by couriers. Today, Israel’s surveillance coverage is infinitely better
equipped to know what is happening on the ground at any given time. Just the
same, IDF spokespersons are reticent, cautious, prior to conducting
thorough investigations.
Further to that, an IDF
spokesman said, “We have all the
material needed to complete an exhaustive
investigation, and present the findings.” He dismissed as ‘baseless’
accusations of causing intentional
harm to Palestinians looting the convoy.
IDF
Spokesman Rear-Admiral Daniel Hagari
said on Saturday night that Israel will present
its findings from last Thursday’s
deadly melee, during which more than 100 Palestinians were reported killed and
hundreds more wounded while swarming aid trucks in Gaza City.
Hamas
accused Israeli forces of shooting at
the crowd of thousands, while the IDF says many of the casualties were trampled
in a chaotic crush for the food aid, and that its forces only fired at a few individuals who
rushed toward them in a threatening manner.
“We
are investigating this incident, we have all the footage we need to complete an
exhaustive investigation and present the findings,” Hagari said at an evening press conference.
Foreign news media outlets
invariably quote Palestinian sources. For example, Associated Press and AFP
quoted witnesses saying that Israeli troops opened fire on a crowd of hungry
Palestinians pulling boxes of flour and canned food off aid trucks, scattering
the crowd. When the shooting stopped, one witness said, the Palestinians
returned to the trucks and the soldiers opened fire again. However, a Palestinian witness told the BBC
that most of the people killed had been run over by trucks. A hospital worker
said there were not enough ambulances for the casualties, and some were brought
to hospital on donkey carts.
A report in The Guardian
said, “The
Israeli version of events changed over the course of the day. The first account
given by the IDF was that the
victims had died in a stampede in which people had been “killed and injured
from pushing, trampling and being run over by the trucks. Later, Israeli
military officials briefed the Guardian and other news outlets stating that their forces had only opened fire
on a crowd that threatened them after the aid convoy had moved on, and that
most of the casualties were caused earlier by the stampede or people being
knocked down. Israeli officials also questioned the death toll from Palestinian
authorities.
A
spokesperson for António Guterres said the UN secretary
general was “appalled by the tragic human toll of the conflict” in Gaza and called for an investigation of
the incident. “We don’t know exactly what happened but whether people were shot
and died as a result of Israeli gunfire, whether they were crushed by a crowd,
whether they were run over by trucks.
These are all acts of violence, in a sense, due to this conflict,” said the
spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric.
What have
been the consequences and international reaction?
Hamas
has suggested that the killings could lead them to suspend talks on a release
of their hostages. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan accused Israel of targeting
civilians.
The
French president, Emmanuel Macron, called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Macron added in a post on X expressing:
“Deep indignation at the images coming from Gaza where civilians have been
targeted by Israeli soldiers. I express my strongest condemnation of these
shootings and call for truth, justice, and respect for international law.”
Additional clarification was
provided to
the UK's Channel 4 News, by IDF
spokesman Lt Col Peter Lerner who said a
"mob stormed the convoy bringing it at some stage to a halt.
"The
tanks that were there to secure the convoy saw the Gazans being trampled and
cautiously tried to disperse the mob with a few warning shots."
In
a statement posted later Chief IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari added:
“The tank commander
decided to retreat to avoid harming civilians and "they were backing up
securely, not shooting at the mob".
At
an earlier interview on CNN the Israeli prime minister's special
adviser, Mark Regev, said Israel had not been involved directly in any way.
He
said the IDF had opened fire in a separate incident not related to the food
convoy
Mark
Regev added: "In the incident of the truck being swarmed there was
gunfire, that was Palestinian armed groups. We don't know if it was Hamas or
others."
Leaders
around the world have demanded an investigation into what happened.
It
follows concerns raised on Tuesday by a senior UN official who warned that more
than half a million people across the Gaza Strip faced catastrophic levels of
food insecurity.
Update:
The IDF said on 3 March that an initial review had confirmed that "the
majority of Palestinians were killed or injured as a result of the
stampede."
It
added that "warning shots" had been fired "to disperse the
stampede" and that after Israeli forces started pulling back,
"several looters approached our forces and posed an immediate threat to
them."
Only then did the IDF troops
fire warning shots in the air followed by fire directed at the lower body limbs
of the threatening looters. The whole defensive action was conducted in
accordance with the IDF’s “Rules of engagement.”
I hasten to add that once
the “fog of war” clears the Gaza War will be investigated, without coverups, or
any whitewashing. Independent NGO’s and our ‘free-press’ guarantee absolute
accountability.
At this juncture I’m adding
a seemingly unrelated topic, however in this region no topic is truly ‘stand-alone.’
Jordan has asked Israel to
supply it with more water!
Or,
as Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies put it
succinctly on Monday, “Jordan is asking for more water after trashing the
Israelis for nearly 5 months, and downplaying 10/7. This comes after years of
vitriol to placate its majority
Palestinian population. Israel needs to help. Jordan’s stability is crucial.
But a different contract is needed.”
The
peace agreement is also of primary strategic importance to Jordan, since the
relationship with Israel – and the intelligence and security cooperation that
comes with it – serve as protection for the Hashemite Kingdom against hostile
powers taking it over from east or north. Furthermore, it is a key factor in
massive US aid that the country receives. Both countries need each other. But
this is something that Jordanian officials seem to forget in their often
vitriolic condemnations of Israel at home and around the world. Jordan’s
request now to renew the water deal is a good time for Jerusalem to remind the
Jordanians that Israel also has expectations.
Israel,
as it considers whether to renew the water deal, has some leverage, and should
impress upon the Jordanians that – as it considers sending more water from the
Kinneret to faucets in Amman – it expects its peace partner to the east to work
this year to douse flames on the Temple Mount and not to fan them by playing
into the hands of Hamas and others who will try to ignite a conflagration by
saying, as they do every year, “Al-Aqsa is in danger.”
Some Middle East affaires
analysts regard the Al-Aqsa threat, namely the Ramadan deadline next Sunday, as
a matter that concerns both Israel and the Arabs. Like a double-edged sword it “cuts
both ways.”
Beni,
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