CNN: Evidence points to Israel after carnage

Israel was involved in the massacre in which 31 Palestinians were shot dead while waiting for emergency aid in Gaza on Sunday, a CNN investigation shows.

Israel denies the charges. Here is a storming of a UN food warehouse in Gaza

On Sunday night, over 30 Palestinians were shot dead on Rasheed Road in southern Gaza.

The Palestinians were heading towards the Israeli-established distribution point for emergency aid that was scheduled to open at 5 a.m.

At 03:30 the first shots were fired. According to the health authorities in Hamas-ruled Gaza, 31 people were killed and another 175 were injured. All of the dead had been shot in the head or chest.

Now CNN’s investigation of the incident shows that Israel was involved. The television company has spoken to witnesses and analyzed video clips showing the mass shootings – in at least two places, gunshots were heard for hours.

In one clip, groups of Palestinians are seen lying on the ground in an attempt to protect themselves from volleys of automatic fire.

The gunshots have been analyzed by audio forensics expert Robert Maher, at Montana State University – on behalf of CNN.

– Because the shots are irregular, it seems like the shots were sprayed over the entire area, he says.

Recognizes “warning shots”

The velocity of the shots points to FN Mag machine guns, the type mounted on Israeli Merkava tanks, according to Trevor Ball, a former ammunition handler for the US Army. This is consistent with witness accounts obtained by CNN that tanks opened fire on the crowds.

Ball further says that the sound of the shots excludes that they came from the type of machine gun that Hamas usually uses. Bullets taken from the bodies of the victims after the attack also match Israeli weapons, he states.

The Israeli military states that Israeli forces were active in the area at the time, but that they had no part in the carnage.

– Regarding the incident on Sunday – it simply did not happen, said military spokeswoman Effie Defrin on Tuesday.

However, the military states that “warning shots” against “suspicious individuals” have been fired at the aid centers for three days in a row.

Also on Tuesday, nearly 30 Palestinians were killed on their way to the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution sites in Rafah, according to Palestinian health and government officials.

Gaza Humanitarian Foundation

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is an organization that the United States, with the support of Israel, launched in early May.

The idea is that it will handle all distribution of food, medicine and other aid to war-torn Gaza, where virtually the entire population is at risk of starvation as a result of Israel’s previous total blockade of emergency aid for two months.

The US is shutting out the UN and other established organizations, with the explanation that previous aid channels have allowed Hamas and other terrorist groups to take advantage. According to the UN, GHF’s activities cannot possibly live up to humanitarian principles.

The foundation’s director, Jake Wood, left his post shortly after starting, citing that the work could not be carried out according to humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence. The new director is the American pastor Johnnie Moore, who has dismissed reports of deaths at the distribution sites as “fictional massacres”.

(TT)