ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
A deadly shooting in Gaza this weekend left at least 21 people dead and more than 150 wounded as they were seeking food, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Palestinian eyewitnesses say people were heading toward a new food distribution site when Israeli troops fired at them.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
The U.S. ambassador for Israel says there was no such shooting and says U.S. media outlets reporting it are spreading, quote, "utterly fabricated stories." Today, the Israeli military acknowledged its troops fired warning shots at Palestinians in a separate incident near the same food site. Gaza health officials say at least two were killed.
SHAPIRO: NPR's Daniel Estrin has more from Tel Aviv. And a warning that this story describes graphic scenes of violence.
DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: NPR spoke with two Palestinians who said they survived a terrifying few hours early Sunday morning in Gaza.
MOHAMMED SAQQA: (Speaking Arabic).
ESTRIN: Mohammed Saqqa, a father of three, told NPR producer Ahmed Abuhamda he took a horse-drawn cart to the seashore at 2 a.m. and joined huge crowds hoping to reach a food distribution site when it opened at 6 a.m. He had heard supplies run out quickly.
SAQQA: (Speaking Arabic).
ESTRIN: "The Israeli military began firing warning shots from tanks and navy boats," he says, "while drones played an announcement ordering crowds to retreat." People dropped on their stomachs to take cover, but they'd advance little by little. It was dark. He says he kept hearing shots and people screaming.
SAQQA: (Speaking Arabic).
ESTRIN: There was an old woman near him with her grandson. She was shot in the neck. "I found her full of blood," he says, "as her grandson shouted"...
SAQQA: (Speaking Arabic).
ESTRIN: ..."Oh, Grandma. Oh, Grandma."
NPR spoke with another man who says he was in the crowd named Barakat. He asked that his last name be withheld, fearing repercussions from Israel. He said navy boats opened fire, and he described similar scenes.
BARAKAT: (Speaking Arabic).
ESTRIN: "This is inhumane, unsafe and unfair," Barakat said. He says he went home empty-handed. Everyone had already grabbed all the food.
Speaking anonymously in line with military protocol, an Israeli military official told media outlets, including NPR, the troops did fire warning shots at, quote, "suspects" about a thousand yards from the food site. The official said it was to prevent them from approaching troops. But publicly, Israeli military spokesman Effie Defrin released this video message.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
EFFIE DEFRIN: I urge you not to believe every rumor spread by Hamas. We will investigate each and one of those incidents and each and one of those allegations.
ESTRIN: The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, the U.S.-backed group running the new food site, issued denials. It said no civilians were shot near the site and sent emails saying NPR's accounts were completely false and ludicrous. U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee also weighed in. He says U.S. media reports of shooting are false and that firsthand accounts showed no injuries, no fatalities, no shooting. He accused U.S. media outlets of contributing to an antisemitic climate that resulted in Sunday's attack on pro-Israel demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado.
In Gaza, the big picture, aid workers say, is that not enough people are getting food. None has reached north Gaza in more than three months. The World Food Programme keeps trying to deliver flour there, but their trucks have been looted says the WFP's Corinne Fleischer.
CORINNE FLEISCHER: When there is no food in a place where 2.1 million people live, of course criminality increases dramatically. People just try to get their hands on whatever they can.
ESTRIN: She says what's needed now is a ceasefire. She says that is the best way to get food to people in Gaza safely. Daniel Estrin, NPR News, Tel Aviv. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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