The Al-Rashid Humanitarian Aid Distribution Disaster [Flour Massacre] refers to an incident in Gaza on February 29, 2024, in which, according to Palestinian sources, at least 118 Palestinian civilians were killed and at least 760 were injured after Israeli forces allegedly opened fire on civilians stealing food from aid trucks. (Initial reports say 50 people were killed. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry confirmed the incident, saying 70 people were killed and at least 250 wounded).
According to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), most of the victims were trampled in the crowd caused by looters and aid trucks ran over the crowd. The Israeli military fired warning shots to quell the looting, also firing on Gazans who charged IDF forces protecting aid convoys in two related incidents.
The aid convoy was one of at least four that Israel organised in a new partnership with local Palestinian businessmen to northern Gaza, where international groups have suspended most operations due to looting and security threats. In order to deliver food to northern Gaza, local Gazan businessmen organised the trucks with the IDF in charge of security and the aid trucks traveled the humanitarian corridor organised by the IDF.
IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari held a press conference where he confirmed that Israel was involved in facilitating the aid convoy and denied that the IDF had struck the aid convoy. Hagari also claimed that the IDF had fired warning shots to try to disperse the crowd that attacked the aid convoy and that IDF forces had begun to withdraw from the scene when the looters began to pose an immediate threat to the troops present. Hagari explained that it was because of this threat that IDF soldiers were forced to respond.
Hagari stated “We have started an investigation to investigate the incident further, which will help reduce the risk of such a tragic incident happening again during one of our humanitarian operations. The incident is investigated by the Fact-Finding and Evaluation Mechanism, which is an independent, professional and expert body. In the interest of transparency, we will share our updates as the investigation develops, hopefully in the coming days.”…Hagari stressed “We will continue to expand our humanitarian efforts to the civilian population of Gaza while achieving our goals of freeing our hostages from Hamas and liberating Gaza from Hamas.”
The UN’s World Food Program (WFP) has previously stated that the overwhelming lawlessness prevailed in the region, which has made it difficult to transport aid to Gaza. According to the New York Times, the aid convoy that ended up in disaster on Thursday was part of a new Israeli operation to get desperately needed food to Gazans by working directly with local businessmen.
Israel was involved in organising at least four such aid convoys to northern Gaza last week after international aid groups suspended operations in the region, citing rising lawlessness. Some residents have resorted to looting the pantries of abandoned homes. UN aid convoys carrying essential goods to northern Gaza have been looted either by civilians fearing starvation or by organised gangs. Israel’s aid efforts sought to fill the vacuum left by the United Nations and other aid agencies. On Thursday, this company experienced a setback against the Israeli designers.
Israeli military officials contacted several Gazan businessmen and asked them to help organize an aid convoy to the north, according to two Palestinian businessmen involved in the operation, Izzat Aqel and Jawdat Khoudary. Mr. Aqel said in an interview with The New York Times that he helped deliver some of the trucks involved in Thursday’s ill-fated convoy. According to him, an Israeli military officer had called him about 10 days earlier and asked him to organize aid trucks to northern Gaza with as much food and drink as possible. According to Mr. Aqel, as of this week, the operation’s first three convoys — each of 15 to 25 trucks — had entered northern Gaza without any problems. Some were relief trucks sent by him, while others were organised by other contractors. The convoy, which ended in bloodshed, left the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza before heading to northern Gaza, aiming to reach areas that had not seen aid for weeks, Aqel said.
Sources include Jerusalem Post , AP , BBC , NewYorkTimes , IDF
The article first appeared in Finnish in the online publication Ariel-Israelista suomeksi