Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports on the Great Flour Massacre committed by the Israeli army on Black Thursday, February 29, 2024 in the south of Occupied Gaza City at Dawar al-Nabulsi, Rasheed Street.
OCHA says that the Gaza Ministry of Health “reported that 104 Palestinians have been killed and 760 were injured in the early morning hours of 29 February on Al Rashid Road southwest of Gaza city, warning that the actual death toll is likely to be higher as medical teams are struggling to handle the situation with limited critical care resources. The incident occurred as thousands of Palestinians reportedly gathered around trucks carrying supplies when they were allegedly hit by artillery shells and gunfire, according to initial media reports. The Israeli military, cited by the media, has reportedly acknowledged shooting by its troops, and has also said that most casualties occurred as a result of congestion and incidents of people being run over by trucks.”
Al Jazeera Arabic reports that the few aid trucks that come north from Rafa to Gaza City come along the coast up Rasheed Street. Dawar al-Nabulsi (a traffic circle) is at the intersection of Rasheed Street and 10th Street, which runs east and west through Gaza City. It is at the edge of the Zaytun neighborhood, which is heavily garrisoned by Israeli military units, though most Israeli troops had withdrawn from northern Gaza City. It was at the traffic circle where people converged on an aid delivery that the Israeli military began sniping and shelling.
The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that on Thursday evening the death toll rose to 112 and the number of injured was confirmed to be at least 760. It says that the Ministry of Health was reporting late Thursday that large numbers of the wounded had still not been moved to hospital. Some of the dead were taken to the al-Shifa Medical Complex, which has been destroyed as a functioning hospital by the Israeli army, in one of its many war crimes.
The Israeli Air Force on Thursday also dropped bombs on several neighborhoods in the Strip, and Israeli artillery pieces fired at residential complexes in Khan Younis.
Israel has a responsibility as the occupying power in Gaza to ensure the safety and well-being of the civilian population. That it has not arranged secure methods of providing food relief, and that according to its military spokesman, its soldiers, “afraid” of the resulting scramble by crowds, fired into them, is an indictment, not an excuse. It also does not reflect well on the courage of Israeli soldiers that women and children seeking flour should so terrify them. The civilian noncombatants who risked their lives to get food for loved ones were far braver.
Alas, it is also possible that the “being afraid” story is a falsehood and propaganda. There is a lot of evidence that Israeli soldiers in Gaza have standing orders to shoot down military-age men whenever they are moving around freely outside. That was likely why they shot three Israeli hostages who escaped last fall– they saw military age men moving around. There have also been many reports of Israeli soldiers firing on people approaching aid trucks. This tactic could be intended to ensure that Hamas fighters cannot receive aid. However, there are hundreds of thousands of military age men in Gaza and there were only 30,000 members of the Hamas paramilitary, the Qassam Brigades, so such a policy would penalize hundreds of thousands of innocent noncombatants, who are thereby targeted for death or arbitrary imprisonment.
Eyewitnesses interviewed on Arab satellite channels maintain that the Israeli army sniped at them and bombarded them with no provocation and in “cold blood.”
Despite a preliminary injunction on January 26 against Israel that it is plausibly committing genocide in Gaza and should immediately cease doing so, the Israeli government has halved the number of aid trucks allowed into the strip in February as compared to January. The January total was already woefully inadequate according to UN and other aid workers on the ground, who are reporting widespread hunger, dependence on non-potable water, and lack of essential medicines and medical supplies. Israeli government figures, in and out of office, have spoken of the desirability of reducing the Palestinian population of Gaza and of the usefulness of disease in doing so.
OCHA head Martin Griffiths posted on X,
Life is draining out of Gaza at terrifying speed. pic.twitter.com/5Wd4w8aurX
— Martin Griffiths (@UNReliefChief) February 29, 2024
Al Jazeera Arabic reports that pretty much all major world leaders have condemned Israel’s handling of the incident, including regional powers such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia and some European officials, including France. The Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres, called for a dispassionate and transparent investigation.
Although this incident was dramatic and drew attention, the slow, invisible starvation by Israel of the Palestinians of Gaza has the potential to kill thousands of people, not just hundreds.
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