Aid groups, whose convoy was hit in an Israeli airstrike on Thursday, said the four people killed were local residents who had been hired to escort the convoy.
The attack hit the lead vehicle carrying them and the four were the only casualties in the attack, which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) described as “armed assailants” who had hijacked the convoy.
The incident highlights the extreme danger faced by humanitarian workers every day as they work to save lives in Gaza, facing the threat of looting and attacks by armed groups and desperate civilians, and the risk of attack from Israeli forces on the ground and drones patrolling constantly overhead.
The motorcade was organized by Anera, a US-based NGO that has served refugees and victims of violence in the region for more than 50 years.
The company partnered with Dubai-based logistics company Move One to organise a convoy to deliver medical supplies and fuel to a UAE-run hospital in the southernmost city of Rafah.
The lead vehicle in the convoy was apparently attacked by a drone as it was en route to the hospital.
The route had been coordinated in advance with the Israel Defense Forces under a deconfliction process to prevent aid vehicles from being bombed. Anela's statement on FridayShortly after the convoy entered Gaza, four local men who had previously worked for Move One “expressed concerns about the dangers of the route and the risk of looting and offered to take command of the lead vehicle.”
In previous statements, Anera had described the Palestinian men as Move One employees, but on Friday it described them as “four local residents with previous experience working for Move One in regional security missions and activities.”
“The four community members were not vetted or coordinated in advance and Israeli authorities allege that the lead vehicle was carrying a large number of weapons,” the new statement said, without confirming or denying claims that the men were armed.
“Anera and Move One are in close contact and working together to establish all the facts,” it said, adding that “the Israeli airstrikes were carried out without any prior warning or communication.”
“Based on the information we have, this is a case of our partners on the ground working hard to make aid successful — but not at the expense of people's lives,” Anera president and CEO Sean Carroll said.
In a statement on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed that the route had been coordinated, but claimed that “as the convoy was moving, several armed assailants seized the lead vehicle of the convoy – a jeep – and began diverting it.”
“The attack was carried out after neutralising the armed assailant's vehicle and further verifying that a precision strike was feasible,” it added.
“No other vehicles in the convoy were damaged and the convoy reached its destination as planned. The attack on the armed assailants has put an end to the threat of armed assailants hijacking humanitarian convoys.”
The IDF contacted Anera after the incident, claiming that the aid group “confirmed that all members of the convoy and humanitarian supplies are safe and arrived at their destination as scheduled.”
Anela confirmed that a motorcade had arrived at the hospital, but said only one Anela employee was in the motorcade.
The airstrike on the convoy came hours after Israeli soldiers opened fire on a World Food Programme (WFP) vehicle travelling in a two-vehicle convoy bearing clear UN markings.
WFP said the vehicle was hit by at least 10 bullets as it approached an IDF checkpoint in Wadi Gaza. The vehicle was armored with reinforced glass and no one inside was injured, but the agency has suspended travel by its staff around Gaza.
At a UN Security Council meeting on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood expressed concern over the shooting at the WFP vehicle and said Israel had informed Washington that initial investigations suggested the shooting was “the result of a miscommunication between military units”.
On July 23, UNICEF, the United Nations child welfare and protection agency, announced that two of its vehicles had been hit by live ammunition while waiting in a military-designated waiting area in the Gaza Strip.
On April 1, the Israel Defense Forces used a drone to attack a convoy run by the World Central Kitchen charity, killing seven aid workers.
The IDF later dismissed the two men, acknowledging “serious negligence” by the officers, and acknowledged that while it had been informed of the planned convoy in advance, the information was not passed on to operational units.
