Mick Hartley

It's like the Al-Ahli Hospital story back in October, when the Israeli bombing caused horror and outrage across the world – except it didn't happen. A stray Islamic Jihad missile hit the car park. Hamas news reports hit the headlines, and the truth came limping along afterwards. 

So yesterday we were treated to headlines, courtesy of Hamas, about the IDF shooting and killing some hundred or so Gazans trying to get to some aid trucks. "Despicable", "a new low", were typical comments. We waited for a while to hear what really happened:

Dozens of Palestinians were killed Thursday in Gaza City as they swarmed aid trucks that entered the city.

Hamas blamed the IDF for the deaths. The military said most of the casualties were caused by a stampede and being run over by the supply vehicles. Gunmen also opened fire in the area as they looted the supplies.

The army said it did not fire at the crowd rushing the main aid convoy. It acknowledged that troops opened fire on several Gazans who moved toward soldiers and a tank at an IDF checkpoint, endangering soldiers, after they had rushed the last truck in the convoy further south….

The Israel Defense Forces published drone video showing thousands of people swarming around the aid trucks as they reached the area in northern Gaza. In some cases, the vehicles continued to try and push past the crowds.

The trucks were being driven by “private contractors,” the IDF said.

According to an initial IDF probe of the crush, the vast majority of the casualties were a result of trampling and being struck by the aid trucks.

The incident began at around 4 a.m., when some 30 trucks carrying humanitarian aid arrived at the coast of Gaza City, to deliver food to Palestinians in the Rimal neighborhood.

Thousands of Palestinians rushed the trucks after they passed an IDF checkpoint in central Gaza, leading to a stampede in which dozens of Palestinians were killed and hundreds wounded, some after being run over by the trucks, according to the probe.

The IDF’s initial investigation found that some of the trucks managed to continue further north, where armed men reportedly opened fire at the convoy near Rimal and looted it.

Dozens of Palestinians who rushed the last truck in the convoy, further south, began to move toward an IDF tank and troops stationed at the military’s checkpoint, the investigation found.

An officer stationed in the area ordered soldiers to fire warning shots in the air as the Palestinians were within a few dozen meters, as well as gunfire at the legs of those who continued to move toward the troops, the probe said.

The IDF said that fewer than 10 of the casualties were a result of Israeli fire.

The IDF has coordinated several aid deliveries to northern Gaza in recent weeks, although this one was larger than usual. It said it would now look for a solution to prevent such incidents from happening again and was conducting probes into the incident.

The story has now largely disappeared from the headlines, as the less exciting truth has dampened the initial barely-disguised glee at this further Israeli outrage. 

Who do you believe, then? An Islamist group that makes no secret of its strategy to kill as many Jews as possible and to destroy Israel with extreme violence, and which welcomes the death of as many Gaza civilians as possible to provoke a world-wide backlash against the Jewish state…or the IDF? For most major news outlets here the answer's clear enough. The Hamas version is given priority as the default truth, while further down there may be some brief mention of a different IDF story. 

It's a strange war where the "attackers" do their best to minimise civilian casualties, while the "defenders" want to see as many dead as possible.