Hamas Warns The Death Of Civilians Queuing For Aid Could Cause Negotiations

Israeli military land operations in Gaza. (Source: Israel Defense Forces)

JAKARTA - Senior Hamas member Izzat Al-Risheq warned that the killing of people waiting for help from trucks in Gaza could lead to a failure of negotiations aimed at the release of hostages and ceasefires.

"Negotiation is not an open process," he said in a statement published by Hamas on Telegram.

"We will not allow the negotiation route (to become a cover for enemy crimes that continue against our people in the Gaza Strip," Al-Risheq said.

Earlier, at least 104 people were killed and hundreds of others injured on Thursday, in a chaotic incident in which IDF forces opened fire when Palestinian civilians who were starving gathered around food aid trucks, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.

Health authorities in the Gaza Strip said on Thursday that Israeli troops' fire on people awaiting aid near Gaza City had killed 104 Palestinians and injured 280 others.

Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said the incident occurred in the al-Nabusi roundabout west of Gaza City in the northern part of the enclave.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's office said he "condemned the poor massacres carried out by Israeli occupation soldiers this morning against people waiting for aid trucks at the Nabulsi roundabout".

An Israeli official told CNN IDF forces did use live ammunition on people around the aid truck as "the crowd approached the troops in a manner that posed a threat to the troops, responding to the threat by direct fire.

"This morning, when a humanitarian aid truck entered the northern Gaza Strip, Gazans surrounded the truck, and looted supplies that were being sent. In that incident, dozens of Gazans were injured as a result of being pushed and trampled on," the IDF told CNN, adding the incident was being investigated.