WASHINGTON (CN) — President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken did damage control with Middle East leaders on Thursday after dozens of Palestinians were killed while clamoring for humanitarian assistance in Gaza.
Biden and Blinken held phone calls with leaders of Egypt and Qatar, hoping to keep the latest batch of Palestinian civilian deaths from derailing negotiations to secure a temporary ceasefire and release hostages held by Hamas. But as he headed to Texas on Thursday, Biden said he knew the deaths would affect the hostage talks.
The latest conflict between Israel and the Palestinian territories it occupies ignited on Oct. 7, when militants from Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, entered Israel. They killed nearly 1,200 people and took at least 240 hostages in that attack.
Since then, Israel has launched a brutal invasion of Gaza — one of the most densely populated areas in the world. That invasion has so far killed more than 30,000 people. Northern Gaza is bordering on famine conditions.
Thursday’s incident occurred after hundreds of people swarmed a couple of commercial trucks delivering humanitarian aid.
Israel has offered conflicting claims of the role its soldiers played in what happened next. One account said soldiers fired on Palestinians who approached the soldiers in a threatening manner. Another account said soldiers opened fire when Palestinians tried looting the vehicles.
After the shooting started, the trucks fled the gunfire, running over people in the process.
At least 107 people reportedly died and more than 700 were wounded. It’s unclear how many people were killed by gunfire, in the stampede or by the trucks fleeing the location.
Officials in Washington have walked a tightrope over the incident — noting conflicting reports from Israeli and Palestinian sources and stressing that the U.S. doesn’t have sources on the ground.
“We have seen obviously conflicting reports,” State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said. “We don’t have ground truth on what happened.”
Biden spoke with Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, Qatar’s emir, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi. Blinken, meanwhile, spoke with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. In nearly identical White House reports of Biden’s conversations, officials said the president discussed Thursday’s “tragic and alarming incident.”
“Both leaders grieved the loss of civilian lives and agreed that this incident underscored the urgency of bringing negotiations to a close as soon as possible and expanding the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza,” the White House said in each readout.
Qatar is leading the negotiations between Israel and Hamas. Negotiators are hoping for a six-week cease fire, the release of Israeli hostages and the release of some Palestinian detainees.
Miller said the incident underscores the humanitarian disaster in Gaza.
“Just from the aerial footage, you can look at that and tell the situation is desperate,” he said. “People are swarming these trucks because they’re hungry. They need food. They need medicine and other assistance.”
The Biden administration was criticized Thursday for its response to the incident as frustration mounts over Biden’s handling of the war.
Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said administration officials wouldn’t have such a tepid response if the same situation played out in occupied Ukrainian territory.
“It is unconscionable that the Biden administration has not condemned the Israeli government for any of the war crimes it has committed over the past four months,” he said. “Only political leaders who do not believe all lives are equally valuable could ignore today's massacre and continue to enable this open genocide of Palestinian men, women and children.”
Refugees International called the incident an “apparent mass killing of civilians” and also said the U.S. should pause military assistance to Israel.
“At face value, the incident appears to be an unambiguous war crime,” the organization said in a statement. “It is difficult to see what mitigating circumstances might alter that assessment. There is nothing that can justify the killing of civilians desperate to receive lifesaving relief for their families.”
Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, called on the U.S. to stop funding Israel.
“Children are starving in Gaza. Instead of opening up the borders and allowing humanitarian aid to come in, Israeli soldiers are shooting people who are desperately trying to get food off of trucks,” he said. “This must stop.”
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