Israeli military officials admit to shooting at Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid

Israeli military officials admitted they fired at Palestinian civilians lining up for aid in Gaza even though they posed no threat, according to a report by Haaretz newspaper on Monday.

The admission follows a report by the newspaper on Friday in which Israeli soldiers admitted they were directed to fire at starving civilians at the five distribution points in Gaza, where the US-Israel backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF) has been delivering limited aid since 27 May. Nearly 600 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces seeking aid since then.

The officials in the Southern Command unit said they were “ordered to fire at unarmed crowds near food distribution sites in Gaza, even when no threat was present” and said “that civilians had been killed due to ‘inaccurate and uncalculated’ artillery fire”, according to the report.

They said that in the most serious incident, between 30 and 40 people were targeted.