Gaza help supply: Movies and eyewitness accounts solid doubt on Israel’s timeline of meals distribution that turned lethal

CNN
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Jihad Abu Watfa was standing within the rubble alongside a darkish stretch of coastal highway southwest of Gaza Metropolis when he noticed Israeli navy tanks approaching. He started recording on his telephone simply as a heavy barrage of gunfire flashed earlier than his eyes.

“We at the moment are underneath siege, a tank is beside us and it’s shelling,” Abu Watfa may very well be heard saying within the video, which he shared with CNN.

The 27-year-old was surrounded by a whole lot of different Palestinians who had gathered for an aid delivery on February 29 when Israeli troopers accompanying the humanitarian convoy opened fireplace. Greater than 100 individuals have been killed and 700 injured, in keeping with Gaza’s well being ministry.

The tragedy, which has grow to be recognized amongst Palestinians because the “Flour Bloodbath,” is likely one of the single deadliest mass casualty occasions to happen in Gaza since Israel launched its assault on the strip following Hamas’ October 7 terror attack. It got here after greater than a month of Israel denying aid into Gaza Metropolis and northern Gaza and adopted what the United Nations has known as “a sample of Israeli assaults” on civilians desperately searching for meals, amid unprecedented levels of starvation.

CNN collected testimonies and movies from 22 eyewitnesses, a lot of whom had traveled from different cities throughout Gaza within the hopes of discovering one thing for his or her households to eat. When the convoy handed via an Israeli checkpoint on Al Rashid Road, the principle north-south route designated by the Israeli navy for humanitarian help, survivors recalled Israeli troops opening fireplace on crowds as they tried desperately to achieve the meals help. Many mentioned they have been undeterred by the bullets, believing that in the event that they weren’t killed making an attempt to get the flour, they might die of starvation as a substitute.

Gazan and Israeli officers have supplied conflicting accounts of what occurred that evening. Gazan well being authorities mentioned that scores of individuals had been killed within the gunfire and people injured have been handled at hospitals for gunshot wounds, whereas the Israeli navy mentioned most individuals had been trampled to demise in a “stampede” for the meals help or struck by the help vans driving away from the melee.

Mark Regev, the Israeli prime minister’s particular adviser, initially instructed CNN that Israeli forces had not been concerned. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israel Protection Forces’ (IDF) spokesman, mentioned quickly after that troopers had not fired straight on Palestinians searching for help, however fairly fired “warning photographs” within the air.

On March 8, after an inner investigation, the IDF launched a timeline suggesting that the help convoy started to cross into northern Gaza accompanied by its tanks at 4:29 a.m. A minute later, at 4:30 a.m., the IDF mentioned its troops fired “warning photographs” towards the east to disperse crowds earlier than firing at “suspects” who they claimed posed a menace. At 4:45 a.m., the navy mentioned it fired extra warning photographs.

However CNN’s evaluation of dozens of movies from the evening and testimonies from eyewitnesses’ casts doubt on Israel’s model of occasions. The proof, reviewed by forensic and ballistic consultants, indicated that computerized gunfire started earlier than the IDF mentioned the convoy had began crossing via the checkpoint and that photographs have been fired inside shut vary of crowds that had gathered for meals.

The IDF haven’t but responded to CNN’s questions on these findings.

Khader Al Za’anoun, a journalist in Gaza with the official Palestinian information company, Wafa, instructed CNN on the time that almost all of the casualties occurred on account of individuals being rammed by help vans as they tried to escape Israeli gunfire.

Al Za’anoun, who was on the scene and witnessed the incident, mentioned the chaos and confusion that led to individuals being hit by the vans solely began as soon as Israeli troopers started taking pictures.

“The general public that have been killed have been rammed by the help vans in the course of the chaos and whereas attempting to flee the Israeli gunfire,” Al Za’anoun mentioned.

The Israeli military released drone footage of the incident claiming it confirmed a stampede by which Palestinians have been trampled and that the tanks have been there to “safe the convoy,” however the high quality and enhancing of the video make it tough to verify their claims.

The footage reveals a whole lot of individuals gathering round help vans on Al Rashid Road. Many individuals look like working and a few crawling away, in an try to hunt cowl. However the essential second capturing what prompted the group to scatter is lacking. The video then cuts to point out our bodies on the bottom – although it’s not clear whether or not they’re alive or lifeless – in a location geolocated by CNN close to to the checkpoint.

Recorded utilizing night-vision, the drone footage is the one out there video that provides a transparent view of the crowds. If nothing else, it reveals simply how tough it will have been to fireplace with any diploma of accuracy at what the IDF described as “suspects” among the many tightly packed individuals surrounding the convoy.

The IDF has denied CNN’s requests for the total unedited drone footage from February 29.

View this interactive content on CNN.com

All eyewitness movies obtained by CNN have been recorded in darkness, so supply a restricted view into what occurred that evening. However, drawing on their metadata, which incorporates the time they have been filmed, the movies reveal an inconsistency with the IDF’s personal account of when its troops began taking pictures.

Movies filmed within the hours earlier than the lethal incident, between 2 a.m. and three a.m. and geolocated by CNN, present individuals gathered on the seashore and roadside about 900 meters (simply over half a mile) away from the checkpoint. Teams could be seen sitting round fires, whereas others stroll across the seashore. All seems calm.

Eyewitnesses instructed CNN that they’d began to collect in anticipation of the arrival of meals – help convoys typically journey at evening to keep away from being inundated by crowds en route – however that the vans hadn’t even crossed the brink of the checkpoint when Israeli tanks began taking pictures.

In a video recorded by eyewitness Belal Mortaja, which was shared straight with CNN, gunfire could be heard ringing out and other people could be seen working away, urging others to flee, warning of a tank. The video was recorded at 4:22 a.m., seven minutes earlier than the IDF mentioned the convoy had crossed over into northern Gaza.

Abu Watfa, the 27-year-old, instructed CNN that he began filming simply after he heard gunfire. The video’s metadata confirmed that it was recorded at 4:28 a.m., two minutes earlier than the IDF mentioned it fired warning photographs.

Robert Maher, a gunfire acoustics professional at Montana State College in the USA, who analyzed the footage for CNN, mentioned that the bursts indicated heavy computerized gunfire at 600 rounds per minute. That evaluation was additionally corroborated by Richard Weir, senior researcher within the Disaster and Battle division at Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Abu Watfa continued filming and at 4:30 a.m., the video reveals a truck driving alongside the highway, and tracer rounds touring from the southwest, the place Israeli tanks have been positioned. One spherical is seen ricocheting up into the air.

In reference to the tracer rounds, Weir instructed CNN it was tough to know the place the projectile originated because of low-light circumstances. Nevertheless, the trajectory of the spherical was flat and gave the impression to be touring towards the bottom at lower than 180 levels earlier than it ricocheted up into the air, he mentioned.

“If the barrel of the weapon is angled downward and never horizontal or up, then the trajectory of the projectile will journey rather more rapidly in the direction of the bottom than it will from [a] regular bullet drop,” he added.

One other video from a separate location alongside Al Rashid Road, released by Al Jazeera, additionally reveals horizontal tracer rounds, probably originating from the southwest, touring left to proper as an enormous crowd gathers across the vans. Gunfire can be audible.

Regardless of the gunfire, Abu Watfa mentioned he was decided to get help for his youngsters and didn’t need to go away empty-handed.

“I used to be working amongst a thousand people; individuals have been immediately falling and being injured. The (IDF) have been busy taking pictures. I ran in the direction of the primary truck, however I used to be unable to get something from it,” he mentioned, including that he managed to push his technique to the third truck and depart with a bag of flour.

“I took the bag of flour and left (at) the aspect of the truck, taking pictures was happening round me and had intensified.”

As daylight broke, the aftermath of the taking pictures turned seen. Movies confirmed lifeless our bodies, some with wounds to their head and chest, scattered alongside the coast. Folks may very well be seen attending to the lifeless, inserting them on prime of a truck’s cargo mattress, draped with blood-stained sheets.

CNN interviewed seven survivors who have been handled for accidents in what was Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa. Amongst them was Jihad Abd Rabu, who had a bandage wrapped round his chest the place he had been shot – a bullet had hit his left shoulder. He mentioned that he was struck with gunfire within the early hours however needed to wait till dawn earlier than anybody got here to assist.

One other survivor, Hamouda Zamil, instructed CNN that he was shot at after he was given a bag of flour from the convoy. “As quickly as I carried the bag of flour and began to stroll, they (the IDF) shot at me,” he mentioned. “I began to ask individuals to assist me, they (the individuals) left me.”

Dr. Amjad Aliwa, a doctor at Al-Shifa, instructed CNN he had gone to Al Rashid Road to get meals for his household, and witnessed individuals panicking when the Israeli navy began firing. He mentioned that individuals began to push one another to get to the vans, with some being pushed in entrance of them, and within the chaos, he was shot in his left thigh. He mentioned he rapidly bandaged his leg earlier than returning to the hospital to supply remedy for the numerous wounded who had been taken there.

Georgios Petropoulos, who heads the UN humanitarian coordination sub-office in Gaza, estimated that he noticed at the very least 200 injured being handled, together with for gunshot wounds however didn’t specify what number of.

CNN traced a few of the help within the convoy to Ummah Welfare Belief, a Muslim aid and improvement charity primarily based in Bolton, northern England. Amongst movies and photographs of the aftermath, cardboard bins emblazoned with the nonprofit’s emblem may very well be seen scattered on the bottom, splattered with blood.

“It got here as a shock,” Mohammed Ahmed, a trustee, instructed CNN in an interview on the group’s headquarters a couple of weeks after the lethal incident. “That is the primary time in 20 years of working on this discipline, the place I’ve truly seen blood blended with help.”

Ahmed mentioned the charity had been profitable in delivering help to southern Gaza earlier than, however this was the primary time they’d tried to go to the north. “We have been very, very excited and blissful that lastly we now have gone via,” he mentioned.

That pleasure was short-lived. Nonetheless, Ahmed mentioned the tragedy wouldn’t deter the group from attempting once more as a result of they’ve “no different alternative.”

“Persons are both going to die from hunger, from the famine, from the determined scenario, or they are going to be killed by indiscriminate taking pictures or focused killings,” he mentioned.

Because the United Nations company for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, says Israel is obstructing it from making help deliveries into northern Gaza and charities are increasingly filling that void, the February 29 assault raises critical questions on whether or not the Israeli navy can facilitate the secure distribution of desperately wanted help.

From January 25 to March 21, the UN Workplace for the Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) documented reviews of at the very least 26 assaults on civilians ready for much-needed provides at Al Nabulsi roundabout on Al Rashid Road and Al Kuwaiti roundabout on Salaheddin Road in Gaza Metropolis.

On February 26 – three days earlier than the lethal incident on Al Rashid Road – movies shared with CNN by eyewitnesses confirmed heavy tank fireplace on Palestinian civilians gathered for an help supply alongside the identical stretch, close to the checkpoint.

In one other video posted on-line on February 28 in the identical space, a person could be seen carrying a bag of flour over his shoulder after a barrage of gunfire is heard adopted by injured individuals being lifted from the scene on blankets. He turns to the particular person filming and says: “I’ve to die (for the flour), we should die in Gaza and really feel humiliated for a bag of flour.”