February 29, 2024 - Israel-Hamas war

Intra-Palestinian talks focusing on Gaza's settlement are underway in Moscow, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reports.

The meetings with the leading Palestinian factions began with a speech by the director of the Russian Institute of Oriental Studies, Vitaly Naumkin, in which he welcomed the participants and wished them successful work, according to the state media report.

The Russian foreign ministry earlier said representatives from Hamas and rival political faction Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority, would take part in the talks.

Fatah spokesperson Hussein Hamayel confirmed to CNN on Wednesday the attendance of officials from the Fatah Central Committee. However, Hamas has not confirmed its participation.

The goal of the meeting was to find ways to “unite the Palestinian factions under the Palestinian Liberation Organization” and to form a new government capable of working in East Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank and Gaza, Hamayel said.

In his opening remarks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called for solving the problem of creating a Palestinian state in accordance with the resolutions of the Security Council and the United Nations General Assembly, and advocated resuming direct dialogue between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

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CNN's Matog Saleh and Celine Alkhaldi contributed to this report.

There were two separate incidents involving aid trucks in Gaza that took place several hundred meters apart Thursday, an Israeli military spokesperson claimed in a briefing, offering a timeline that contradicts what eyewitness accounts have said.

What the spokesperson said: In the first incident, at about 4 a.m. local time, roughly 30 trucks with humanitarian aid went from the southern Kerem Shalom crossing into the north. The convoy traveled north across Gaza toward shelters along a coastal road. As they entered northern Gaza, thousands of people surrounded the trucks. The people then rushed the trucks, and dozens were injured and killed — some after being run over by the trucks.

Subsequently, the spokesperson claimed, a group of Palestinians approached a Israeli military position nearby. The soldiers fired warning shots in the air and then fired toward those who "posed a threat and did not move away."

"The truckloads went into the north, then there was the stampede, and then afterwards, there was the event against our forces. That’s how things transpired this morning,” the spokesperson said.

When asked how many civilians were killed when they approached Israeli forces, he said he did not have any figures to provide.

CNN cannot independently confirm the version of events given by the Israeli military spokesperson.

What eyewitnesses said: That timeline directly contradicts eyewitness accounts, which indicate that the Israeli military opened fire on people near the trucks, causing truck drivers to drive away in panic, killing additional people.

At least 104 people were killed and 760 injured in the chaotic incident, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza. CNN is unable to independently confirm these numbers.

CNN's Jennifer Hauser contributed reporting to this post.

This post has been updated with additional comments from the spokesperson.

A spokesperson for the US National Security Council said the White House is looking into the situation in Gaza involving food aid trucks and reports of dozens killed, calling it a "serious incident."

The spokesperson also called for a temporary ceasefire in the war in a statement.

Many of the casualties in the chaos that erupted in Gaza at a food distribution site were killed as a result of being run over by aid trucks as they tried to escape Israeli fire, according to a local journalist in Gaza, Khader Al Za'anoun.

Al Za'anoun, who was at the scene and witnessed the incident, told CNN that, though large crowds were waiting for food to be distributed from aid trucks, the chaos and confusion that led to people being hit by the trucks only started once Israeli soldiers opened fire. 

"Most of the people that were killed were rammed by the aid trucks during the chaos and while trying to escape the Israeli gunfire," he said.

He said that around 20 were killed directly by the gunfire, and the rest were killed under the aid trucks' wheels.

Israeli government spokesperson Avi Hyman told reporters that people in Gaza who were killed while waiting in line for humanitarian aid are "obviously a tragedy, but we're not sure of the specifics quite yet."

What we know: At least 104 people were killed, and 760 injured after IDF troops used live fire as hungry Palestinian civilians were gathering around food aid trucks, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. 

CNN is unable to independently confirm these numbers.

Civilians had swarmed around newly arrived aid trucks hoping to get food, when Israeli tanks and drones started shooting at the people in Haroun Al Rasheed Street in western Gaza City, in the Sheikh Ajleen area.

What Israel says: An Israeli official told CNN IDF troops did use live fire on people surrounding the aid truck as "the crowd approached the forces in a manner that posed a threat to the troops, who responded to the threat with live fire. The incident is under review."

"I can tell you this is a developing situation," Hyman told reporters.

"At some point, the trucks were overwhelmed and the people driving the trucks, which were Gazan civilian drivers plowed into the crowds of people ultimately killing as my understanding is tens of people. I don't have anything more specific to that. It is unfolding," Hyman said.

Hamas senior member Izzat Al-Risheq warned that the killing of people collecting aid from trucks in Gaza could lead to the failure of ongoing talks aiming at the release of hostages and a ceasefire.

“Negotiations are not an open process,” he said in a statement published by the Hamas on Telegram. 

“We will not allow for the pathway of the negotiations…[to become] a cover for the enemy’s continued crimes against our people in the Gaza Strip,” Al-Risheq said. 

At least 104 people were killed and 760 injured on Thursday in a chaotic incident where IDF troops opened fire as hungry Palestinian civilians were gathering around food aid trucks, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.

CNN is unable to independently confirm these numbers. The IDF said, "the incident is under review."

More than 100 people were killed in northern Gaza where Israeli troops opened fire, triggering panic as hungry Palestinian civilians were gathering around food aid trucks, Palestinian officials and eyewitnesses said.

People had swarmed around newly arrived aid trucks in western Gaza City in the hope of getting food, when Israeli forces started shooting, according to witnesses. Many of the victims died when they were run over by trucks, according to one account.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said 104 were killed and more than 700 injured in the incident, one of the deadliest since the war in Gaza began. CNN is unable to independently confirm the figures and the Israeli military has given a different account of the circumstances.

In a briefing on Thursday, an Israeli military spokesperson said he couldn’t confirm the death toll.

What we know: A group of trucks carrying desperately needed aid arrived at Haroun Al Rasheed Street in western Gaza City, in the Sheikh Ajleen neighbourhood, early Friday.

A local journalist in Gaza, Khader Al Za’anoun, who was at the scene and witnessed the incident, said large crowds had gathered waiting for food to be distributed from aid trucks. But he said that the chaos and confusion that led to people being hit by the trucks only started once Israeli forces opened fire.

An Israeli military spokesperson disputed the Palestinian account of events in a briefing later Thursday, and said there were two separate incidents involving aid trucks.

First, he says trucks went to the north and were swarmed by crowds, with trucks running over people. Subsequently, he says, a group of Palestinians approached Israeli forces, who then opened fire on the Palestinians.

The IDF spokesperson Daniel Hargari said at a press conference Thursday there was no strike on the aid convoy. “I want to repeat that. No IDF strike was conducted towards the aid convoy. On the contrary the IDF was there conducting a humanitarian operation,” he said.

This post has been updated with CNN's latest reporting.

Protestors holding Israeli flags at the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and Gaza Strip appear to have blocked aid shipments into Gaza on Thursday, videos obtained by CNN show. 

Videos show a line of aid trucks reversing away from the crossing, obstructing the deliverance of humanitarian shipments to the territory.

Dozens of people stand by the lorries, surrounded by Israeli flags, with some holding placards demanding the release of hostages. The extent of the disruption is unclear. 

On Monday, the Commissioner-General of The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza have declined by 50% compared to January. On Tuesday, UN humanitarian officials said over half a million people in Gaza are “one step away from famine." 

Tsav 9, the group behind the protests, said Thursday that they will “continue with all our strength, to block the oxygen for the Nukhba terrorists with our bodies.”

“No aid goes through until the last of the abductees returns,” the group added. 

Tsav 9 have been protesting at the crossing since late January. 

CNN’s Ibrahim Dahman, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Lucas Lilieholm contributed to this report.

Families of hostages in Gaza have started the second day of their long-distance march from southern Israel's Re'im to Jerusalem, repeating their calls for the release of those captured during the October 7 attack.

The families will be joined by former hostages, survivors of the Hamas attack, and the public. 

The group started the four-day March on Wednesday from the site of the Nova festival in Re'im.

Some background: Hamas militants stormed the Nova festival on October 7 in an attack that killed over 360 people.

In the attacks on Israel that day, 1,200 people were killed and more than 240 were taken hostage.

There are believed to be 130 hostages still in Gaza, of which 99 are believed to be alive.

Pressure is mounting for a hostage-for-ceasefire deal in Gaza, with negotiations ongoing.