Did Netanyahu order IDF troops to shoot at Palestinians seeking aid? Here’s what Israeli PM said

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz denied media reports claiming Israeli soldiers were ordered to shoot at Palestinians approaching aid sides in Gaza. The findings of the report, published in the left-leaning Israeli daily Haaretz, were “malicious falsehoods designed to defame” the military, they said. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, over 500 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds have been wounded while seeking food during aid distribution since the newly formed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started providing aid in the territory around a month earlier.

According to a report by Associated Press, Palestinian witnesses said that Israeli troops opened fire at people on the roads heading towards aid distribution areas. Responding to the Haaretz report, the Israeli military said that it was investigating incidents where civilians have been harmed, rejecting the allegations “of deliberate fire toward civilians.”

The US-backed group has been distributing food boxes at four locations in Gaza for the last month. In a social media post, it said, “GHF is not aware of any of these incidents but these allegations are too grave to ignore and we therefore call on Israel to investigate them and transparently publish the results in a timely manner.”

Thousands of Palestinians walk for hours to reach the hubs, passing through Israeli military zones where witnesses have claimed Israeli troops have opened fire to control the crowd. The Israeli military has said that it has only fired warning shots, according to the AP report.

Since the war began after the October 7, 2023, attack in Israel, more than 56,000 people have been killed and 132,000 injured in Gaza, according to its health ministry. In Israel, over 1,219 people have been killed, while 251 were taken hostage by Hamas – 49 of whom are still being held in Gaza.