Watch CNN's investigation into UN aid truck hit by Israeli forces
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Israeli forces fired on a United Nations convoy carrying vital food supplies in central Gaza on February 5, ultimately pushing Palestinians to the brink of starvation, according to documents exclusively shared by the Israeli military. The truck was stopped from advancing into the northern part of the territory. Unique analysis by the United Nations and CNN.
CNN has reviewed communications between the United Nations and the Israeli military, showing that the convoy's route had been agreed upon by both sides before the attack. The truck was one of 10 vehicles in a stationary convoy at the IDF camp at the time of the shooting, according to an internal incident report compiled by UNRWA, the main UN relief agency in the Gaza Strip, and seen by CNN. Ta.
None of the passengers in the convoy were injured, but much of the contents, mainly flour desperately needed for baking bread, were destroyed. Tracking the attack comes amid Israel's nearly five-month bombardment of the strip, a key step in getting aid to more than 2 million people in the strip, nearly 85% of whom are internally displaced. Provides a window into the major challenges facing humanitarian efforts.
“A convoy carrying food was heading towards the northern Gaza Strip. The convoy, en route to what we call the central region, was attacked. One of the trucks carrying supplies was attacked. We came under Israeli naval shelling,” Juliet Touma, UNRWA's global communications director, told CNN.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not responded to CNN's repeated requests for comment on the attack. The IDF announced on February 5 that it was investigating the incident.
This is one of several incidents in which aid transport vehicles as well as warehouses storing aid have been attacked since the war began.
Following the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack that killed at least 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages, Israel launched shelling and a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. More than 29,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, according to the Gaza Strip's Ministry of Health.
Following the February 5 attack, UNRWA decided to suspend its convoy to northern Gaza. The last time the agency was able to deliver food north of Wadi Gaza, a wetland that bisects the enclave, was on January 23. The United Nations estimates that 300,000 people still live in northern Gaza with little aid. According to the United Nations, 16.2% of children there are already diagnosed with acute malnutrition, which is above the threshold for what is considered critical.
The convoy, consisting of 10 aid trucks with UN insignia and two armored vehicles, began its journey in the early hours of February 5. UNRWA said the trip was made early in the morning to avoid the contents of the truck being attacked en route. I'm desperate for food.
The convoy departed from southern Gaza and headed north along Al Rashid Street, which runs along the edge of the Gaza Strip's coast. The road has been the main route authorized by the Israeli military for humanitarian convoys and evacuations since January.
According to UNRWA's internal incident report, the convoy arrived at a designated IDF holding point on Al Rashid Street at 4:15 a.m., where the trucks remained stationary for more than an hour. According to the report, naval gunfire was heard at 5:35 a.m. and a truck was struck.
The agency said it had previously coordinated with the Israeli military and agreed on the route it would take before setting out to deliver aid, as it always does.
Email exchanges between UNRWA and COGAT, the Israeli military agency that oversees humanitarian relief operations in the Palestinian territories, also show an agreement for the convoy to pass through Al Rashid Street.
“We are sharing the coordinates of the convoy and the route of that convoy with the Israeli military,” Thoma said. “UNRWA will only move if the Israeli military gives us the OK, green light. Without that coordination, we will not move.”
He said the purpose of the coordination, called a deconfliction process, was to ensure aid convoys were not attacked.
“Gaza is rapidly becoming one of the most dangerous places for aid workers,” Touma said. “It's a very complex environment to operate in. Our teams often have to provide humanitarian assistance under fire.”
UNRWA Director Tom White said the convoy had come under Israeli naval gunfire. shared 2 photos X (formerly Twitter) showed a flatbed truck with a hole in the place where the cargo had been stored, and boxes of supplies strewn on the road. CNN's image geolocation showed the hole was on the side of the truck facing the ocean, indicating it was hit by ammunition fired from that direction.
CNN examined satellite images taken two hours after the incident and confirmed that three Israeli missile boats were visible several kilometers offshore. The boats have formed part of regular deployments since the start of the war, and the IDF says their purpose is to monitor and attack Gaza from the West. In December, the Israel Defense Forces said its navy “attacked hundreds of targets and provided support to soldiers on the ground.”
“It's very difficult to see how this could be a legal attack,” Janina Dill, co-director of Oxford University's Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, told CNN about the February 5 incident. . She said: “At a minimum, this would appear to be a very serious violation of international humanitarian law. Whether it is criminal or not depends on the question of intent, but that would have to be proven in court.”
UNRWA's chief legal adviser for Gaza, Philippa Greer, who was a passenger in the convoy when it collided, said in a post on X that the team was “very lucky” that no one was injured.
The convoy then sought permission to pass through Israeli checkpoints overseeing entry into northern Gaza, but was denied entry.
COGAT says items deemed “hazardous” are blocked from entering the country.
“Israel ensures that all goods, with a special emphasis on food, undergo a process of oversight and control to ensure that the goods being transported are in fact humanitarian aid and not other materials harmful to Israel's security. We are facilitating the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip,” it said in a January 14 newsletter.
In a statement to CNN, the US State Department called the February 5 attack on the convoy “unacceptable” and said humanitarian aid must reach civilians. “In every conversation we have with the Israeli government, we make sure that humanitarian workers can safely distribute aid, that civilians have access to aid, and that Israel does everything it can to protect civilians. “This raises the absolute need to take all possible precautions,” the spokesperson said.
Half of UNRWA's requests for aid missions to northern Gaza have been rejected since the beginning of the year. According to the agency. Significant delays will prevent other permitted travel from taking place.
“The situation in Gaza was so desperate that people saw aid teams, came there and took away supplies from the aid teams,” Touma told CNN. “By the time we get approval, the aid fleet will be empty.”
Other routes are impassable due to debris and craters, according to satellite images reviewed by CNN. Al Rashid Road was hit weeks before it was designated a major humanitarian route by the IDF, leaving a large crater behind.
The World Food Program also said in a statement on Tuesday that it was suspending its mission to northern Gaza “until conditions permit safe distribution.” This came after another convoy was reportedly hit by gunfire in Gaza City.
Aid operations are further complicated by several other factors, from UNRWA's impending loss of funding to the looming Israeli military offensive in Rafah and reports of harassment of humanitarian workers.
UNRWA, the largest aid agency on the ground in Gaza, has facilitated the delivery of much-needed aid to Gaza from Israel and Egypt. Their operations have come under pressure after accusations from Israeli intelligence emerged in late January that 12 UNRWA employees were involved in the October 7 Hamas-led Israeli terrorist attack.
The agency terminated the contract and launched an investigation. However, following the accusations, several UN member states withdrew funding, and as of February 12, UNRWA had lost 72% of the $1.2 billion needed for humanitarian operations through the end of March.
Aid efforts in the south are becoming increasingly dangerous amid a lack of funding. In the past few weeks, Israel has launched heavy airstrikes on Rafah, the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip, where most of the population has fled, and is now planning to step up ground operations, with France The NGO “Médecins Sans Frontières'' is working on this. Doctors Without Borders said the situation would be “catastrophic”.
Meanwhile, there are reports that humanitarian aid workers have been detained and abused by IDF soldiers while passing through these checkpoints. Members of the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) who were in a World Health Organization convoy were detained during a mission to transport patients in early December, according to a UN report on the incident.
“He said he was harassed, beaten, threatened, stripped and blindfolded. His hands were tied behind his back and he was subjected to humiliating and humiliating treatment. Upon his release, he “He was made to walk south with his hands tied behind his back and without clothes or shoes,” the report said.
Israel's treatment of aid workers and their convoys will come under further scrutiny when the International Court of Justice (ICJ) holds hearings from February 19 to 26. The court ordered in late January that Israel “must take immediate and effective steps” to provide assistance. Humane access to the strip.
Craig Jones, a lecturer at the University of Newcastle in the UK and author of The War Lawyer, which examines the legality of past Israeli Defense Force operations in Gaza, believes it is unlikely that Israel meets the ICJ's criteria. He said that
“I don’t see any way to interpret this other than as a deliberate strategy, first to over-manage or strip aid to Gaza, and then to strip aid to specific areas of Gaza where it is most needed. ,” Jones said. he told CNN.
As Israel's military offensive continues to push the population of the Gaza Strip into smaller and smaller areas, the humanitarian situation is becoming increasingly dire.
“Everyone is saying no place is safe,” Jones explained. “There is also no safe route to Gaza for this aid and the humanitarian workers transporting it.”
Gianluca Mezzofiore and Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.
