Israeli troops fired “warning shots” towards a group of 25 diplomats visiting Jenin in the Israel-occupied West Bank on Wednesday, prompting a wave of outrage and calls for an investigation from world leaders and ministers.
Footage shows a number of diplomats giving media interviews when rapid shots rang out nearby, forcing them to run for cover.
The delegation comprised ambassadors and diplomats representing 31 countries, including Italy, Canada, Egypt, Jordan, the UK, China and Russia.
The Israeli military said the visit had been approved but the delegation “deviated from the approved route” and Israeli soldiers fired warning shots to distance them from the area.
The report, seen by the Guardian, includes UN statistics on casualty figures and concludes that 44% of those killed in the first months of the Israeli offensive were children.
Global leaders and ministers demanded an investigation after Israeli troops opened fire on a group of 25 diplomats visiting Jenin in the Israel-occupied West Bank on Wednesday with “warning shots.”.
Several diplomats are seen in the video conducting media interviews before they were forced to flee for their lives when quick shots rang out close by. Ambassadors and diplomats from 31 nations, including Italy, Canada, Egypt, Jordan, the United Kingdom, China, and Russia, were part of the delegation.
The group was observing the humanitarian situation in Palestine as part of an official mission organized by the Palestinian Authority. Although the visit was authorized, according to the Israeli military, the delegation “deviated from the approved route,” and Israeli soldiers fired warning shots to keep them away from the area.
As Israel escalates its offensive in Gaza and escalates the growth of settlements in the West Bank that violate international law, the ministers of Canada, Britain, France, and other European countries called Israeli ambassadors to their respective capitals to explain the “unacceptable” incident.
While Canada, Turkey, and the EU called for an investigation, Germany, a longtime ally of Israel, denounced what it called “unprovoked firing.”.
“We anticipate an explanation of what transpired right away. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told a press conference, “It’s completely unacceptable.”. Among them were four diplomats from Canada.
António Guterres’s spokesperson also called on Israel to carry out a “thorough investigation.”.
Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesperson, stated that it is obvious that diplomats who are carrying out their duties should never be shot at or subjected to any kind of attack. Their safety and inviolability must always be respected.
The incident, according to Egypt, “violates all diplomatic norms.”.
Israel allegedly “deliberately targeted” the diplomatic delegation with live fire, according to the Palestinian Foreign Ministry.
The IDF said it would get in touch with diplomats to let them know the outcome of its internal investigation into the incident and expressed regret for “the inconvenience caused.”.
In January, Israel launched a massive attack on Jenin, displacing tens of thousands of Palestinians from their homes—one of the biggest displacements in the West Bank in recent memory.
At least 82 people were killed in Gaza on Wednesday by a fresh round of airstrikes and artillery shelling, including a week-old baby and multiple women, according to hospital and Gaza health ministry officials.
24 people, including 14 members of the same family, were killed in Khan Younis, where Israel recently ordered additional evacuations ahead of an anticipated major attack into the southern city, according to Palestinian officials.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, declared late Wednesday that by the end of its stepped-up offensive, “all of the Gaza Strip will be under the Israeli army’s control.”. He stated: “To maintain our freedom of operational action, we must prevent a humanitarian crisis in the face of mounting international pressure on Israel to permit food to reach starving Palestinians. “.”.
Since Netanyahu’s administration decided on Monday to end the 11-week blockade that has left Gaza at “critical risk of famine,” about 100 aid trucks have traveled into the territory. Late on Wednesday, a few dozen people went through the Kerem Shalom checkpoint, but their cargo had not yet been distributed.
According to the head of the Gaza bakery owners’ society, Abdel-Nasser al-Ajramy, at least 25 bakeries that were promised flour from the World Food Programme have not received it, and the hunger of those who are waiting for food has not been alleviated.
A large portion of Gaza’s 21.3 million inhabitants depend on community kitchens and free bakeries to survive. Nearly every one has shut down.
“There is no food, no water, no flour,” said Sabah Warsh Agha, 67, of Beit Lahiya, a town in northern Gaza. “The pump used to supply us with water, but it has since stopped functioning. Gas and diesel are not available. “”.
The distribution of aid is being slowed down by complicated logistics, ongoing fighting, Israel’s requirement that cargoes be reloaded onto new trucks once they enter Gaza, a lack of fuel, and bad road conditions, according to humanitarian officials.
The Israeli military ordered aid organizations to send convoys carrying hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of flour along routes along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt and along the coast, both of which are thought to be vulnerable to looting, which further delayed the situation, according to The Guardian.
Countries that had previously refrained from publicly criticizing Israel have strongly condemned the latest offensive in Gaza, which comes after a two-month ceasefire. Even the nation’s most significant ally, the US, has expressed growing impatience with Netanyahu.
Britain, along with France and Canada, threatened “concrete actions” if Israel persisted in its offensive and imposed restrictions on the free flow of aid. Britain also announced on Tuesday that negotiations on a free trade agreement with Israel would be suspended.
Separately, Kaja Kallas, the head of EU foreign policy, stated that the bloc was reexamining its trade agreement with Israel due to its actions during the Gaza War. According to the agreement, each signatory must demonstrate “respect for human rights and democratic principles.”.
Since officials could rely on a 34-page report that was put together late last year and contains numerous claims of systematic violations of international law by both Israel and Hamas during the conflict, the EU’s review could be finished rather quickly.
The Guardian obtained the report, which cites UN data on the number of casualties and comes to the conclusion that children accounted for 44% of the deaths in the initial months of the Israeli offensive. According to international humanitarian law, states have the “negative obligation” to refrain from aiding or assisting parties to a conflict in violating international humanitarian law. It also enumerates Israeli strikes on hospitals.
Israeli Palestinian MP Ayman Odeh was escorted off the Knesset podium in Jerusalem by security after he accused the government of committing war against civilians and the defenseless and of killing 19,000 children in Gaza.
When left-leaning opposition leader Yair Golan claimed earlier this week that Israel was in danger of turning into a “pariah state among the nations” and that “a sane country doesn’t kill babies as a hobby,” the government and its allies reacted angrily.
Golan is the head of one of the larger minority parties in the Israeli parliament and a former deputy commander in the Israeli military. His remarks—as well as those of former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in a BBC interview—represented a unique emphasis on Palestinian suffering by prominent Israeli politicians. The fate of hostages held in Gaza has been the focus of the majority of domestic criticism of the war.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel called the criticism “shocking.”.
Netanyahu, who heads the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, stated, “While IDF soldiers are fighting Hamas, there are those who are strengthening the false propaganda against the state of Israel.”.
Negotiations for an indirect ceasefire in Doha, the capital of Qatar, have failed. On Tuesday, Israel announced that it would retain lower-level officials in place and called back a large portion of its negotiating team. According to Qatari leaders mediating the talks, they have been unable to close a significant divide between the two sides.
