The loss of civilian lives was the biggest in weeks.
Gaza officials say more than 100 Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces as they waited for an aid delivery, but Israel has challenged the death toll and says many of the victims were run over by aid trucks.A woman sits among Palestinians at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City after they were injured in an early morning incident when residents rushed toward aid trucks in Gaza City on Feb 29.
The Israeli military said the trucks were operated by private contractors as part of an aid operation that it had been overseeing for the past four nights. In a later briefing, Israel Defence Forces spokesman Rear-Adm Daniel Hagari also said dozens had been trampled to death or injured in a fight to take supplies off the trucks.
The White House said Biden discussed the “tragic and alarming incident” with the leaders of Egypt and Qatar, as well as ways to secure the release of Israeli hostages and a six-week ceasefire. Another, which Reuters could not verify, showed bloodstained people being carried in a truck, bodies wrapped in shrouds and doctors treating injured patients on the hospital floor.
Much of Gaza has been reduced to rubble and most of its 2.3 million population have been displaced from their homes at least once.