Regarding the “actively preventing” of civilians fleeing Gaza, Israel charged Hamas
According to the Israel Defence Forces, any material coming from the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory should be viewed with “extreme caution and suspicion” as it supports their “propaganda purposes.” The IDF has denied intentionally killing civilians trying to evacuate north Gaza in airstrikes.
Despite not totally excluding the possibility of a “freak accident,” IDF spokesperson Lt. Colonel Jonathan Conricus reiterated on Sunday that “there was no targeting of vehicles, there was no targeting of civilians” in reference to Friday’s incident, in which dozens of people were killed or injured.
The spokesperson played a clip of automobiles travelling down Salah al-Din Road in response to an Israeli evacuation order before one of the cars was struck by an explosion.
I won’t be able to determine if this was caused by an overhead attack or a roadside IED because I’m not a forensic expert. However, I can confidently state—because we asked—that the IDF did not deliberately strike that region, Conricus stated.
On Friday, health officials in the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave asserted that three different Israeli airstrikes had targeted civilian automobiles, killing 70 people and injuring up to 150 more. According to the UN agency for humanitarian affairs, OCHA, “these incidents forced many people to give up their evacuation efforts and return home.”
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The IDF official stressed, however, that “it is obvious that information released by the so-called Gaza Ministry of Health about the number of people killed, whether they were armed or not, whether they were women or children, is authorised by Hamas… and serves its propaganda purposes.”
The IDF spokesman continued by stating that it “makes no sense for the IDF to have done it,” particularly “because we wanted people to go south.”
“Who would want to stop those same civilians – the same organisation that did the roadblocks,” he argued. “Hamas has both warned its citizens not to flee and, when they disregarded those warnings, has actually stopped civilians from doing so.”
Again, the official said, “This is not conclusive.” “What is clear is that we undoubtedly did not strike intentionally. I doubt it, but it could have been some type of weird accident.
Israel gave the order to leave northern Gaza on Thursday in order to “save their lives” and get away from the militants before launching a combat offensive. The passage to Egypt has been closed since Tuesday owing to Israeli bombings, and the entire territory remains blockaded.
Following the Hamas onslaught on Israel this weekend, which resulted in the deaths of over 1,300 Israelis, Israel launched the most extensive bombing campaign against Gaza in decades, which, according to local health officials, resulted in the deaths of over 2,200 Palestinians and over 7,600 injuries.
