More than 100 Palestinians die in chaos surrounding Gaza aid convoy

Israeli military rejects claims it fired on crowd and blames deadly crush

- Emma Graham-Harrison

More than 100 Palestinians were killed early yesterday morning, Gaza health officials said, when desperate crowds gathered around aid trucks and Israeli troops opened fire. The US president, Joe Biden, warned the incident was likely to complicate ceasefire talks.

There were starkly different accounts of how the victims died in the chaos near Gaza City. Israel's military denied shooting into large crowds of hungry people and said most victims had been killed in a crush or run over by trucks while trying to escape. Soldiers only fired at a small group that had moved away from the trucks and threatened a checkpoint, a spokesperson said.

Witnesses and survivors described bullets hitting crowds around the aid trucks, and Mohammed Salha, acting director of al-Awda hospital, which treated 161 casualties, said most appeared to have been shot.

Gaza health officials said at least 112 people had been killed and 280 injured after Israeli forces opened fire on an aid distribution point. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said it was an "ugly massacre conducted by the Israeli occupation army on people who waited for aid trucks".

Biden said the US was trying to determine what happened, but the loss of life would complicate efforts to broker a deal to stop fighting and release Israeli hostages, before Ramadan starts on 10 March.

Hamas said the incident could jeopardise talks in Qatar. It said it would not allow talks "to be a cover for the enemy to continue its crimes".

The incident came as the death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza passed 30,000, according to Gaza authorities. With more than 70,000 injured, and thousands more uncounted victims buried under collapsed buildings, nearly one in 20 of the prewar population of Gaza are now presumed casualties of attacks.