The Guardian :
Israel was facing growing international pressure for an investigation after more than 100 Palestinians in Gaza were killed when desperate crowds gathered around aid trucks and Israeli troops opened fire on Thursday.
France called for an “independent probe” into the circumstances of the disaster, and Germany said the Israeli army must “fully explain” what happened.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said civilians had been “targeted by Israeli soldiers” and called for an immediate ceasefire.
“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,” he posted on X.
“The situation in Gaza is terrible. All civilian populations must be protected. A ceasefire must be implemented immediately to allow humanitarian aid to be distributed.”
An Israeli military spokesperson claimed “tens” of people were killed in a crush or run over by trucks as they tried to escape, although he also said Israel Defense Forces troops had “opened fire” after feeling under threat.
R Adm Daniel Hagari said: “Tens of Gazan residents were killed as a result of overcrowding, and the Palestinian trucks unfortunately ran over them during an attempt to escape. An IDF force that was securing the area passed by the crowd and opened fire only when they encountered danger, when the mob moved toward it in a manner that endangered the force.”
He added: “Contrary to accusations, we did not fire toward individuals seeking aid and we did not fire toward the humanitarian convoy from the ground nor from the air.”
At an earlier briefing, an Israeli spokesperson said soldiers fired at a small group that moved away from the trucks and threatened a checkpoint.
Amid differing accounts of what happened, Annalena Baerbock, the German foreign minister, said she was shocked by reports of the incident. “People wanted relief supplies for themselves and their families and ended up dead. The reports from Gaza shock me. The Israeli army must fully explain how the mass panic and shooting could have happened,” she wrote on social media.
The White House said the deaths of 112 desperate people seeking food for their families were “tremendously alarming”.
The state department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, told reporters the US was “urgently seeking additional information on exactly what took place” and not all the facts were known. Washington would be “pressing for answers”, he said.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, said that at a closed-door emergency session of the UN security council the US had blocked a resolution put forward by Algeria that said the deaths were “due to opening fire by Israel forces”. Of the council’s 15 members, “14 members supported the text”, Mansour said after the meeting.
He added: “This outrageous massacre is a testimony to the fact that as long as the security council is paralysed and vetoes [are cast], then it is costing the Palestinian people their lives.” Washington has three times blocked security council resolutions for a ceasefire in Gaza.
On Friday, Stéphane Séjourné, the French minister for Europe and foreign affairs, told France Inter: “We will ask for explanations, and there will have to be an independent probe to determine what happened. France calls things by their name.
