Gaza Aid Convoy Tragedy: Unraveling the Deadly Events

To piece together the sequence of events leading up to the fatal incident, NBC News used footage shot on location, drone footage from the IDF, and interviews with medical professionals and witnesses.

TFD – Explore the harrowing events of the Gaza aid convoy tragedy, where lives were lost in a desperate scramble for humanitarian aid. Gain insights into the Gaza humanitarian crisis and the impact of violence on civilian populations. Stay informed about the ongoing challenges in Gaza and the efforts to address the humanitarian needs of its residents.

Gazan authorities refer to it as a slaughter. According to the Israeli military, its men were defending themselves.

Thousands of Palestinians gathered on a beachside road in Gaza City early on February 29 in anticipation of a much-needed aid convoy.

Over 100 people had died and hundreds more had been injured by sunrise, according to Gaza’s health authorities. The bulk, according to the Israeli military, were driven over or trampled in the frantic rush aboard the thirty trucks, although witnesses claim that Israeli forces fired and killed the residents with tank artillery ammunition.

Salama Maroof, the chief of the Gaza Strip’s government media office, claimed on X on March 3 that Israel “lies about the flour massacre” and that the victims “were hit by bullets from its tanks, and some of them were shot by more than one bullet.”

The episode, which seems to have involved the use of lethal force on a helpless and starving civilian population, sparked widespread international indignation about the humanitarian costs of the war.

To piece together what transpired over a mile-long stretch of road in the hours before dawn that day, NBC News used open-source video shot at the scene, clips of drone footage released by the Israel Defense Forces, footage from NBC News’ crew in Gaza, and ten in-person and over-the-phone interviews with eyewitnesses and medical professionals at Al-Shifa Medical Complex, where some of the several hundred casualties were taken.

The Israeli military has long been the target of growing frustration because of what many believe to be its role in severely restricting aid at border crossings, as well as continuous aerial bombardments and ground operations that have made relief delivery challenging, if not impossible.

The residents of Gaza City had heard rumors the day before about an aid convoy that was expected to arrive tonight. In the southern seaside district of the city, Sheikh Iljin, crowds of people started to assemble. Witnesses reported that at dusk, thousands of people had gathered along Al-Rashid Street, a seafront promenade, huddled around bonfires.

There was something strange about this caravan. IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari stated that it was arranged by Palestinian businesspeople and escorted by Israeli tanks “to secure the humanitarian corridor,” as opposed to being provided by the UN or another international relief organization. He said in a filmed statement later on Feb. 29 that aid had been delivered this way the previous four days.

The convoy and accompanying tanks crossed the checkpoint at 4:29 a.m., and a minute later, troops fired “warning shots” east, followed by opening “fire toward suspects a few meters away” from an IDF tank, according to an IDF review of the events released on March 8 that was consistent with the timeline provided by witnesses to NBC News.

Regarding the type and intensity of the gunfire as well as the manner in which persons were slain and injured, the versions differ.

According to an IDF statement released on Friday, soldiers saw the masses as a threat and “the troops fired precisely toward a number of the suspects to remove the threat” when they continued to advance.

Local filmmaker Shukri Filfil claimed he arrived at the Al-Nabulsi roundabout on Al-Rashid Street shortly after 4 a.m., along with a group of roughly 70 individuals. He added that the Israeli tanks had started to roll into the neighborhood just before the food trucks arrived at 4:28 a.m. Then, according to Filfil, the gunfire began.

He claimed that “the shooting was continuous for about three minutes, nonstop.” Multiple witness statements and the film show that as the shooting got more intense, panic increased.

Filfil claimed that when a stampede surged, he heard people yelling, “A tank, a tank, it is still here,” as he was hidden behind a block.

Over 700 people were injured and 118 people died, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

When NBC News asked the IDF to comment on claims made by the U.N., medical professionals, eyewitnesses, and health authorities that the majority of injuries were caused by gunfire rather than trampling, as the IDF had stated, the IDF did not reply.

Later that same day, the IDF released a series of silent, shortened video clips of thermal imagery drone footage in black and white that seemed to show crowds rushing toward aid trucks and then dispersing in different directions. This came after a flurry of different, sometimes contradictory accounts of what happened. NBC News was able to geolocate the footage to Al-Rashid Street south of Al-Nabulsi roundabout, but could not independently confirm the date of filming.

In the first video, as some people wander around nearby, the drone moves along the street and zooms in and out on a horde of people swarming around what appear to be multiple assistance trucks. The following footage displays a different section of the same route, with IDF tanks parked in the right lane and aid trucks moving northward along the left lane.

The events that transpire between the two clips are not shown to viewers, but by the second, numerous bodies are seen on the ground in between the IDF tanks and the trucks, with some of them laying beside, in front of, and between the two tanks that are visible in the video. It’s unclear if the individuals are dead or injured.

After that, a third clip in which individuals are seen quickly relocating away from the relief vehicles is shown. Some are moving toward the lower terrain and the beach, almost as if they are crawling. In the last, less clear clip, we see another rescue truck on the road, but this time it’s totally encircled by people—some even on the roof.

The IDF was asked to provide NBC News with the raw drone footage, but it refused.

Aligning with the accounts of eyewitnesses, footage released by Al Jazeera shows people climbing over sandbanks toward safety amid the sound of gunfire. Red streaks of tracer ammunition, used to help soldiers aim, are seen several times above the crowd. NBC News geolocated the video to about 200 yards south of the roundabout, but could not determine the exact time it was filmed.

According to Filfil, as people ran for cover, firing from the tanks started a stampede.

He added that although there was a stampede, those “always” occurred around the arrival of food trucks. He said that because of the trucks’ delayed arrival, there were “fewer people than usual” in the gathering that morning.

He stated, “It was because of the continuous shooting,” alluding to the fatal toll.

At dawn, an NBC News crew captured the somber aftermath on camera. People who had been injured were either carried on wooden pallets or moved in donkey carts. Some were arranged on the flatbed of an emergency vehicle that was originally meant to transport the deceased.

A resident of Gaza City named Momin Abuowda told NBC News that he came across blood-soaked, abandoned bags of flour. A man was seen searching in the sand for few rice grains in a social media video.

The following day, hundreds of patients with bullet wounds and detonating artillery rounds were seen at nearby hospitals, according to a doctor and witnesses who talked with NBC News, contradicting Israel’s description of the shooting’s scope.

The majority of these wounds were caused by gunfire, artillery shell explosions, and tank shell explosions, according to Dr. Mohmmed Mahmoud Eghrad, an emergency room physician at Gaza’s biggest hospital, Al-Shifa Medical Complex.

He stated that the injuries he observed were not consistent with “pushing or trampling,” and that 70% of them would require surgery that hospital staff were unable to do because of a shortage of equipment.

Despite the fact that witnesses and medical professionals talked about artillery wounds, the IDF declined to comment on the incident on February 29 or to address the employment of tank artillery.

Former deputy commander of U.S. European Command and retired Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Twitty stated that the IDF uses 120 mm tank cannons, a machine gun, and a rocket launcher in their Merkava tanks, which are made in Israel.

120 mm artillery shells burst into thousands of pieces as they leave the muzzle. According to one manufacturer, the shells have “devastating anti-personnel lethality” potential.

Doctors at Al-Shifa informed Gaza City resident Zaid Abed Alal, 36, who was hurt in the event, that he suffered many fractures in both his ankle and upper legs.

“I grabbed a tank shell with my foot. He pointed to his leg and told NBC News, “It went up and took the flesh and the bones.” Concerned that it might need to be severed, he further mentioned that bullets from two additional gunshot wounds were still inside his body.

“This is all for a flour sack?” he exclaimed.

Heading the U.N. office in Gaza, Georgios Petropoulos reported witnessing over 200 injuries at Al-Shifa, including amputations and gunshot wounds, as well as injuries to children as young as twelve.

Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for the secretary-general of the United Nations, stated that their teams discovered that a “large number” of the victims had been shot; however, he did not state how many because they had not yet examined the bodies of the deceased.

In an effort to “reduce the risk of such a tragic incident from occurring again,” the IDF announced on March 2 that it was opening an investigation.

Israel continues to escort aid convoys into Gaza. And by March 2 Gazan health authorities said dozens of people had been killed in an incident surrounding an aid convoy at Kuwaiti roundabout, also in Gaza City. Another two days later, the IDF confirmed that it again had fired on people surrounding an aid convoy, “in order to disperse the crowds” of Gazans scrambling for aid.