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Israel faces mounting condemnation over killing of Palestinians in Gaza City aid distribution melee
Tel Aviv — China and Turkey joined Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan on Friday in condemning Israeli forces for firing on Palestinians waiting for the delivery of aid in Gaza the previous day, with its foreign ministry calling the event “yet another crime against humanity.” France called for an independent investigation into the incident.
“We will ask for explanations, and there will have to be an independent probe to determine what happened,” French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne told the country’s Inter broadcaster on Friday.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Beijing was shocked and strongly condemned the killing of civilians, adding a call for “the relevant parties, especially Israel, to cease fire and end the fighting immediately, earnestly protect civilians’ safety, ensure that humanitarian aid can enter, and avoid an even more serious humanitarian disaster.”
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Israel said many of the dead were trampled in a chaotic crush for the food aid, and that its troops only fired when they felt endangered by the crowd.
The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said more than 100 people were killed and at least 700 wounded, bringing the overall death toll in the Gaza Strip to more than 30,000 since Israel launched its war on Hamas nearly five months ago in response to the group’s brutal terror attack on Oct. 7. That attack left about 1,200 people dead and saw Hamas take almost 250 others hostage.
Israel has responded with a blistering offensive in the Gaza Strip that has created a humanitarian catastrophe and devastation in northern areas including Gaza City, which have largely been cut off from the rest of the territory with little aid entering.
International pressure was already mounting on Israel to reduce the number of civilian casualties as it carries on with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stated mission to “destroy Hamas” in Gaza. The pressure increased dramatically in the wake of Thursday’s deadly encounter just outside Gaza City.
Pre-dawn video broadcast by the Al Jazeera network captured the moment gunfire erupted as thousands of desperate Palestinians gathered in the hope of receiving food as a rare humanitarian convoy pulled into the area.
Tracer ammunition rounds can be seen streaking across the sky in the video from the direction of an Israeli military position.
CBS News correspondent Imtiaz Tyab reported that as the sun rose, the harrowing aftermath of the melee was laid bare. Medics say dozens were killed and hundreds injured. Medics say dozens were killed and hundreds injured, and doctors at Gaza City’s barely functioning hospitals told CBS News the majority of the deaths were from gunshot wounds.
IDF handout
The Israel Defense Forces released a heavily edited clip of grainy drone video that shows thousands of people clamber around the aid trucks, which it said showed how many people had been killed in a stampede. But the IDF acknowledged that forces opened fire on a smaller group of people whom it said posed an “imminent threat” to the soldiers.
Asked by CBS News how that threat was defined, and whether any of the Palestinians had shot at the Israeli soldiers, IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said anybody approaching the forces after being warned not to was deemed to “pose a threat.”
Witnesses don’t deny a desperate rush for food in the starved city, but many have said the Israeli troops opened fire quickly and without provocation.
“We ran towards the food aid,” eyewitness Anwar Helewa said. “The soldiers then started firing at us, and so we left the food and ran.”
Palestinian leaders have called the incident in Gaza a “heinous massacre.”
President Biden has called it a “tragic and alarming” incident, and he spoke with the leaders of Egypt and Qatar again, with which the U.S. has been trying to help negotiate a new cease-fire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas. Any agreement would also likely include a significant increase in the flow of aid into Gaza, where the U.N. says some 500,000 people are facing acute starvation.
NEW YORK — Former New York Gov. David Paterson and his stepson were attacked in New York City on Friday night, authorities said.
The incident occurred just before 9 p.m. on Second Avenue near East 96th Street on the Upper East Side, according to the New York City Police Department.
Police said officers were sent to the scene after an assault was reported. When officers arrived, police say they found a 20-year-old man suffering from facial injuries and a 70-year-old man who had head pain. Both victims were taken to a local hospital in stable condition.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the former governor said the two were attacked while “taking a walk around the block near their home by some individuals that had a previous interaction with his stepson.”
The spokesperson said that they were injured “but were able to fight off their attackers.”
Both were taken to Cornell Hospital “as a precaution,” he added.
Police said no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
The 70-year-old Paterson, a Democrat, served as governor from 2008 to 2010, stepping into the post after the resignation of Eliot Spitzer following his prostitution scandal. He made history at the time as the state’s first-ever Black and legally blind governor.
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A 17-year-old boy was critically injured and a person is in custody after a gunman opened fire on a SEPTA bus in North Philadelphia Friday evening, police said.
At around 6:15 p.m., Philadelphia police were notified about a shooting on a SEPTA bus traveling on Allegheny Avenue near 3rd and 4th streets in North Philadelphia, Inspector D F Pace told CBS News Philadelphia.
There were an estimated 30 people on the bus at the time of the shooting, Pace said, but only the 17-year-old boy was believed to have been shot. Investigators said they believe it was a targeted attack on the teenager and that he was shot in the back of the bus at close range.
According to Pace, the SEPTA bus driver alerted a control center about the shooting, which then relayed the message to Philadelphia police, who responded to the scene shortly.
Officers arrived at the scene and found at least one spent shell casing and blood on the bus, but no shooting victim, Pace said. Investigators later discovered the 17-year-old had been taken to Temple University Hospital where he is said to be in critical condition, according to police.
CBS Philadelphia
Through their preliminary investigation, police learned those involved in the SEPTA shooting may have fled in a silver-colored Kia.
Authorities then found a car matching the description of the Kia speeding in the area and a pursuit began, Pace said. Police got help from a PPD helicopter as they followed the Kia, which ended up crashing at 5th and Greenwood streets in East Mount Airy. Pace said the Kia crashed into a parked car.
The driver of the crashed car ran away but police were still able to take them into custody, Pace said.
Investigators believe there was a second person involved in the shooting who ran from the car before it crashed. Police said they believe this person escaped near Allegheny Avenue and 4th Street, leaving a coat behind.
According to Pace, police also found a gun and a group of spent shell casings believed to be involved in the shooting in the same area.
“It’s very possible that there may have been a shooting inside the bus and also shots fired from outside of the bus toward the bus,” Pace said, “We’re still trying to piece all that together at this time.”
This is an active investigation and police are reviewing surveillance footage from the SEPTA bus.