Israeli military launches fatal airstrike on humanitarian aid convoy in Gaza

YEREVAN, AUGUST 30, ARMENPRESS. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have said they carried out an airstrike on a humanitarian aid convoy in Gaza aimed at “armed assailants” trying to hijack it but the charity that organised the aid said people killed in the strike were employees of the transport company it was working with, The Guardian reports.

The convoy, organised by the US-based NGO Anera, was carrying medical supplies and fuel to an Emirati-run hospital in Rafah on Thursday evening at the time of the attack. Its route had been coordinated in advance with the IDF, under a deconfliction process intended to prevent aid vehicles being bombed.

Anera’s Palestine country director, Sandra Rasheed, said: “This is a shocking incident. The convoy, which was coordinated by Anera and approved by Israeli authorities, included an Anera employee who was fortunately unharmed.

“Tragically, several individuals, all employed by the transportation company we work with, were killed in the attack. They were in the first vehicle of the convoy.”

Unconfirmed reports from Gaza said five people were killed in the airstrike.

An IDF statement confirmed the route had been coordinated, but claimed that “during the convoy’s movement, a number of armed assailants seized control of the vehicle in the front of the convoy (a Jeep) and began to lead it”.

It added: “After the takeover and further verification that a precise strike on the armed assailants’ vehicle can be carried out, a strike was conducted.

“No damage was caused to the other vehicles in the convoy and it reached its destination as planned. The strike on the armed assailants removed the threat of them seizing control over the humanitarian convoy.”

The IDF claimed it had contacted Anera after the incident and that the aid organisation had “verified that all of the convoy’s organisation members and humanitarian aid were safe and reached their destination as planned”.

Anera confirmed that the convoy did reach the hospital, but said only one person travelling in the convoy was an Anera employee. The rest worked for its partner transport company, which was not named.

“We are urgently seeking further details about what happened,” Rasheed said.

The airstrike on the convoy came hours after Israeli soldiers opened fire on a World Food Programme (WFP) vehicle clearly marked with UN insignia, travelling in a convoy of two.