March 8, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

The Israeli military’s latest review of the carnage at a food convoy on February 29 undermines key elements of previous Israel Defense Forces statements about the sequence of events.

More than 100 people were killed after Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians who surrounded food aid trucks in northern Gaza last Thursday, according to the health ministry in Gaza.

What the IDF initially said: The Israeli military sought to cast the gunfire from its forces and the aid convoy panic as “two different incidents” at two different locations, and insisted that the gunfire happened only after chaos unfolded. But eyewitnesses on the ground said Israeli gunfire triggered the pandemonium, provoking truck drivers to flee the scene and run over multiple people.

IDF spokesperson Peter Lerner told CNN on February 29 the rush for aid resulted in a “mass casualty event that actually has very little or nothing to do with Israel,” and that the gunfire was “at a different location further south, away from the convoy.”

During a separate background briefing, an IDF spokesperson said: “The truckloads went into the north and then there was the stampede, and afterward there was the event against our forces.”

What the timeline says now: But a timeline released by the Israeli military on Friday says the first Israeli gunfire came about one minute after the aid convoy began to pass an Israeli military checkpoint and crossed into a civilian area of Gaza City. The timeline says thousands of Gazans rushed toward the convoy and IDF troops at the same time.

The IDF statement states that IDF forces fired on people who advanced toward them “during the incidents of crowding.” 

The new IDF timeline closely matches how Khader Al Za’anoun, a local journalist, described what unfolded. At the time, he told CNN that large crowds immediately gathered around the convoy and Israeli forces opened fire within minutes. He said it was the gunfire that triggered truck drivers to flee, and that many were killed in the ensuing chaos.

Before the war, Layan Albanna, 17, was excited to finish her senior year of school. These days, she walks through the rubble-filled streets of Rafah, in southern Gaza, listening to the sound of waves lapping the shoreline.  

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza since October 7 has wiped out educational infrastructure. Children in the enclave are expected to lose at least a year of schooling because of the war, according to the United Nations.  

Mohammed Hamouda, a displaced health worker in Rafah, previously told CNN he was heartbroken when the war disrupted education for his eldest daughter, Ella, 6. 

“She deserves it, but life here has become very hard,” added Hamouda, a father-of-three. “There are no schools here for the public, so how can we even find a school that appreciates how smart she is?” 

The European Union is planning to open an emergency maritime aid corridor from Cyprus to Gaza, EU President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Friday, which she said is aiming to open over the weekend.

It comes a day after US President Joe Biden revealed plans for the US military to establish a temporary port on the Gaza coast. Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom will join in the effort. The "complex" operation will be coordinated with Israel's government, according to a joint statement statement. Israel said it welcomed the plan.

International aid workers and US administration officials have stressed that there must be a “flood” of aid to the people of Gaza, and that the most effective way to do so is via overland crossings.

US officials have claimed for months that the only reason that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has shifted on any of his positions regarding the conflict in Gaza is because of efforts by the Biden administration. Biden offered a glimpse into the tensions Thursday after concluding his State of the Union speech, in which he offered a pointed message to the “leadership of Israel” that “humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip.”

Here's what else to know:

Current airdropped aid fails to meet needs: Palestinians in northern Gaza struggle to use the aid recently airdropped by the US and Jordan, because it does not include essential food supplies, according to Abdel Qader Al Sabbah, a journalist based in northern Gaza. “The bodies in charge of these air drops should consider dropping flour, rice, oil, salt, and other seeds and beans, so people here can benefit from these and prepare several meals,” he said, adding that current aid is ready-to-eat meals, which are single portions intended to be eaten the same day, rather than foodstuffs that could be stored and used over several days.

At least 5 killed in a failed aid airdrop: At least five people were killed and 10 others injured on Friday when airdropped aid packages fell on them in the Al-Shati camp west of Gaza City, according to a journalist on the scene who witnessed the incident and then confirmed by a doctor. A video obtained by CNN on Friday shows that the parachute on a pallet of aid apparently malfunctioned.

IDF denies firing at aid convoy: At least 118 Palestinians were killed after Israeli forces opened fire at a Gaza City food distribution site last week, but Israel said its initial investigation found its troops did not fire at the humanitarian convoy, but at a "number of suspects" who approached the nearby forces. CNN cannot independently verify this. The Palestinian foreign ministry rejected the findings, saying Israel "always lies and covers up for its soldiers in order to protect them from accountability and prosecution." It called for an independent international probe. The United Nations said earlier this week that most of the civilians wounded in the incident presented gunshot wounds.

US military says it shot down Houthi missiles and drones: US forces shot down four anti-ship cruise missiles and one drone over Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on Thursday, US Central Command said. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis have been attacking ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to pressure Israel and its allies to stop the war in Gaza.

A video obtained by CNN on Friday shows how a humanitarian airdrop into Gaza went wrong when the parachute on a pallet of aid apparently malfunctioned.

At least five people were killed and 10 others injured when the aid fell on them, according to a journalist on the scene, and a doctor who confirmed the toll.

In the video, the pallet and its contents can be seen falling at a high speed toward residential buildings near the Fairouz Towers in western Gaza. As the aid raced toward the ground, free-falling bags came apart in a shower of debris, and can later be seen and heard impacting the ground with loud thuds.

While most of the other parachutes appeared to deploy properly, the pallets were still falling at a potentially dangerous speed.

The parachutes attached to three pallets collided with each other shortly before hitting the ground, the video shows. Those three chutes fell in an area where a number of people had gathered, and appeared to hit the ground at a higher speed than the other packages.

The transport plane seen delivering the faulty airdrop is a military Boeing C-17, although it was not immediately clear which air force was flying the mission.

CNN's Jonny Hallam contributed to the report.

The Palestinian foreign ministry said it rejects Israel’s investigations into the killing of at least 118 Palestinians and injuring of more than 700 others around an aid convoy in Gaza City on February 29. 

The Palestinian ministry said the international community should follow through with an independent international investigation committee, adding that the "the accused cannot investigate itself."

What Israel said: The Israel Defense Forces said that a summary of its initial investigation found its troops did not fire at the humanitarian convoy, but at a "number of suspects" who approached the nearby forces. CNN cannot independently verify the IDF’s findings.

What an eyewitness said: A local journalist in Gaza, Khader Al Za’anoun, who witnessed the incident, told CNN that at the time that the chaos only began after Israeli troops opened fire and that many of the victims were run over by trucks in the ensuing panic.

What the UN reported: The United Nations said earlier this week that most of the civilians wounded in the incident presented gunshot wounds.

The IDF said that an "independent examination body," the Fact Finding and Assessment Mechanism (FFAM), will continue to investigate the incident.

Palestinians in northern Gaza are struggling to make use of aid recently airdropped by the US and Jordan, because it does not include essential food supplies, a journalist based in the north told CNN on Thursday. 

Journalist Abdel Qader Al Sabbah, reporting from the city of Jabalya, told CNN that the airdrops of aid “are useless as they don’t carry essential foodstuffs.”

Al Sabbah told CNN the food aid is ready-to-eat meals, which are single portions intended to be eaten the same day, rather than foodstuffs that could be stored and used over several days. 

“You are lucky if you even get a hold of these meals. … I don’t even bother to go searching for these aid parcels because people are always fighting over them,” he said.

Footage obtained by CNN shows dozens of parachutes carrying parcels descending from a plane conducting an airdrop. The video was filmed in an area called Al-Suddaniya, near the northern city of Beit Lahia. People can be heard screaming as the parachutes get closer to the ground.

Remember: US and Jordanian forces have carried out three airdrops over the past week, with 38,000 meals dropped on both Thursday and Saturday, and over 36,000 dropped on Tuesday, according to United States Central Command.

United Nations officials also said airdrops and plans for a maritime corridors can deliver far from the amount of aid needed, with land routes being much more effective.

At least five people were killed and 10 others injured on Friday when airdropped aid packages fell on them in the Al Shati camp west of Gaza City, according to a journalist on the scene who witnessed the incident and confirmed by a doctor.

Khader Al Za'anoun told CNN he witnessed the aid packages falling from planes over the camp, but he cannot confirm which nation was behind the air drop.

Muhammad Al-Sheikh, head of the emergency care department at Al-Shifa medical complex in Gaza City, confirmed five people were killed in the incident.

Some of those injured and transferred to Al-Shifa are in serious condition, according to Al-Sheikh.

At least 9,000 women have been killed in Gaza since October 7, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said in a statement Friday.

Here's what else the statement said about the conditions of women in Gaza:

The UN's Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which is the main aid agency in Gaza, also posted a statement on X (formerly Twitter), saying an average of 63 women are killed in the enclave per day. "On #InternationalWomensDay, the women in #Gaza continue to endure the consequences of this brutal war," it said.

UNRWA's Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said more work is required to support and protect women. "An immediate ceasefire is the minimum," he wrote.

The European Union is planning to open an emergency maritime aid corridor from Cyprus to Gaza this weekend in a joint effort with allies including the US, the chief of the bloc, President Ursula von der Leyen, announced on Friday.

“We are now very close to the opening of the corridor, hopefully this Saturday, this Sunday, and I’m very glad to see that the initial pilot operation will be launched today,” she told reporters in Larnaca, in Cyprus. It came after US President Joe Biden revealed plans to establish a temporary port on the Gaza coast.

Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, the Republic of Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom will join efforts to launch the corridor, according to an EU news statement. The "complex" operation will be “closely coordinated with the Government of Israel,” the statement added.

What Israel is saying: Foreign ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat welcomed the plan, saying it will “allow the increase of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, after security checks are carried out in accordance with Israeli standards." Haiat urged other countries to join the initiative and said, “Israel will continue to facilitate the transfer of humanitarian aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip in accordance with the rules of war and in coordination with the United States and our allies around the world.”

Calls for more land crossings: Israel's siege on Gaza has drastically diminished essential supplies entering the strip, where Palestinians are facing starvation, dehydration and deadly hunger.

Israeli authorities insist there is “no limit” on the amount of relief that can enter Gaza, but humanitarian groups have repeatedly warned Israel's restrictions on land crossings into the strip has throttled aid distribution efforts.

Sigrid Kaag, United Nations senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, told reporters on Thursday the optimal solution is by land, "it’s easier faster, cheaper." She added: “When everything goes through one or two crossings, you can’t expect a miracle."

CNN's Richard Roth and Sahar Akbarzai contributed reporting.