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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'Death and hunger': Videos, expert analysis and witnesses point to Israeli gunfire in Gaza aid site shooting
(CNN) A CNN investigation into a deadly incident near an aid distribution site in southern Gaza on Sunday points to the Israeli military opening fire on crowds of Palestinians as they tried to make their way to the fenced enclosure to get food.
More than a dozen eyewitnesses, including those wounded in the attack, said Israeli troops shot at crowds in volleys of gunfire that occurred sporadically through the early hours of Sunday morning. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the US and Israeli-backed aid initiative that runs the site, said that Israeli forces were operating in the area during the same period.
Multiple videos geolocated by CNN place the gunfire near a roundabout where hundreds of Palestinians had gathered about half a mile (800 meters) away from the militarized aid site in Tel al-Sultan in Rafah. The designated route to the site along the coast, Al-Rasheed Street, is in an area under the Israeli militarys control and Israeli troops operate at a base nearby.
Weapons experts said the rate of gunfire heard in the footage, as well as images of bullets retrieved from victims, were consistent with machine guns used by the Israeli military that can be mounted on tanks. Multiple eyewitnesses said that they saw gunfire emanating from Israeli tanks nearby.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/04/middleeast/israel-military-gaza-aid-shooting-intl-invs
Beastly Boy
(13,283 posts)The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) initially said on Sunday that its forces did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the aid site. An Israeli military source later acknowledged that troops had fired warning shots at suspects about 1 kilometer (1,093 yards) away.
The Israeli military declined to answer questions about CNNs findings.
During a press conference on Tuesday, IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said the military investigated and found its troops played no role in any mass casualty event. Defrin said: This week, it was claimed that the IDF fired at civilians in an aid distribution area. This report is entirely false and echoes the propaganda of the terrorist organization Hamas Regarding the incident on Sunday it simply didnt happen!
CNN adds nothing to previously reached conclusions, yet claims to "shed fresh light on how the pursuit of aid turned chaotic and then dangerous"
And what do they "shed"? Unidentified eyewitnesses with no apparent basis to their claims. Israeli forces operating "in the area". No shit, it's a friggin war zone! How far from the shooting was that area? Crickets. Multiple geolocated videos identify the site of the gunfire, which was already identified previously, but no source of the gunfire. Witnesses seeing gunfire emanating from the tanks, but no signs of tanks in the area that CNN could find. Unidentified weapons experts, apparently not present at the scene, finding the sounds they hear and the bullets they see to be "consistent with" but not traced to, certain weapons.
And then, in contradiction to their sensationalized header, the punchline: "However, CNNs review of audiovisual material sheds fresh light on how the pursuit of aid turned chaotic and then dangerous, on the actions of Israeli forces and the consequences of the new aid mechanism", after presenting an article's full of nothing but unsubstantiated speculations which shed no fresh light on anything, and not a single action of Israeli forces tied to the consequences of the new aid mechanism.
What a friggin incompetent and lazy excuse for investigative journalism!
And this garbage is being accepted by CNN editors for print. Disgraceful
Goddessartist
(2,176 posts)Hamas is ridiculous. American mercenaries and the IDF were there, controlled by Israel. As if they'd allow Hamas to be around shooting at people, and it makes no sense they'd kill Palestinians.
Baiting starving people, then slaughtering them is heinous, and a war crime.
malaise
(292,895 posts)but some folks dont want to hear it.
Beastly Boy
(13,283 posts)An odd concept.
AloeVera
(4,000 posts)To not have to face the truth. I did read recently that it was an attempt to hang on to their humanity by acknowledging these are horrific crimes that their side could not possibly commit. But how many times is that going to work for them? And the damage it causes by carrying Israel's lies costs more Palestinian lives. They should think about that.
AloeVera
(4,000 posts)The "stories" being told to alleviate the conscience and deny it was the IDF - are ridiculous.
There is other evidence nicely ignored too, like the fact many were shot precisely in the head and chest or suffered shrapnel wounds, per the Red Cross an the UK-based Aid for Palestine - people at the field hospitals where the victims were taken.
I would add that starving people for 3 months, baiting them with the food you've denied them, setting up death traps for them through negligence or worse and then killing the hungry and desperate is not just unmitigated cruelty but evidence that Israel's intent is to starve Palestinians out of Gaza and make conditions so unbearable they will have no choice but to leave.
The GHF scam originally allotted for only 60% of Palestinians to have food (guess the rest can starve/leave). But since its roll-out, it has managed to feed only 13% of Gaza's population, according to the Guardian (if that even). It also limits aid to food only - no water, medicine, fuel for cooking, or basic essentials for human dignity. So of course disease will spread. As the final kick in the teeth, the food is dry or dehydrated foods that require water and cooking.
The cruelty seems calculated.
The cruelty is calculated.