'The Israeli army has now said it did not fire on civilians who were trying to seek aid'
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00:00 Well, first let's try to set the record straight according to the Israeli army because there
00:05 were so many accusations and rumors that spread wildly in the hours after this incident.
00:13 But the Israeli army has now said they did not fire on civilians who are trying to seek
00:19 aid.
00:20 They did not use tank fire.
00:23 They did not carry out a strike on the convoy.
00:26 They did not strike from the air or the ground.
00:30 What happened, according to the Israelis, is that they were securing the passage of
00:35 a 30 truck-long convoy of aid into northern Gaza.
00:41 It passed through an Israeli checkpoint area and there were tanks on the road securing
00:50 this corridor.
00:53 About 400 or 500 meters from where the Israelis were positioned, thousands of people started
01:01 to amass around the convoys and try to grab the food.
01:07 And that created a kind of mayhem and chaos.
01:11 And they say that a stampede began before any shots were fired.
01:17 A stampede began.
01:19 There was shots that were fired from gunfire in front of the Israeli troops.
01:25 That created more chaos.
01:27 They say that was not their gunfire.
01:29 And then the trucks started to try to move and in that some of the people were crushed.
01:36 Now what the Israelis are saying they did do is that their tanks tried to move out of
01:40 the area.
01:41 And when the tanks, when some of the crowd approached the tanks, the tanks used machine
01:48 gunfire on the tanks, not artillery, to try to ward away some of the Palestinians that
01:55 were gathered there.
01:57 They're calling that a separate incident from the main incident where they say the majority
02:03 of the 100 deaths came from.
02:05 They say they killed maybe a handful of people in what they call these limited skirmishes
02:11 between some of the Palestinians there and a tank which retreated and moved back to the
02:18 Israeli position.
02:19 So they're saying they're not to blame for most of the deaths in this incident, which
02:26 they are calling tragic too.
02:28 So the IDF saying that they fired, not tank fire, but fired later.
02:32 That's right.
02:33 And the stampede happened first.
02:35 Here's the thing, as you know, Jordana, both you and I covered wars previously, whether
02:40 it's Libya or in the Middle East.
02:43 When you are able to cover events as a journalist, international journalist, watching, monitoring,
02:48 able to give an eyewitness account, there's a letter that's gone in from 55 international
02:52 journalists from all organisations to the Supreme Court, to the Israelis, to say we
02:57 must be given access and there is simply no access given.
03:00 This is a big frustration.
03:01 There are some journalists in the area, but clearly overwhelmed trying to survive themselves.
03:06 Right.
03:07 Well, as we've seen, it's an incredibly dangerous situation.
03:10 But I'll tell you what I found interesting about that letter.
03:15 Of course, everyone wants access to Gaza and to get in and see what's happening, despite
03:23 the dangers.
03:26 But there was no acknowledgement in that letter that Hamas would not be a willing participant
03:31 to have journalists there, especially international journalists.
03:37 It would not be a welcoming environment by Hamas, given the way that they deal with the
03:45 passage of information.
03:48 And we see that they have in all of their fighting as well, there have been dozens of
03:52 journalists killed in the Gaza Strip.
03:55 And Hamas does not put civilian lives, it appears, at the top of their priority list
04:00 in this war.
04:02 And so, you know, it's a dangerous situation.
04:06 Of course, everyone wants to get in there.
04:09 And you know, it's not only Israel that's not allowing people in.
04:14 It's a good point, but it's worth saying as well, I think my colleague Rushdie Abielou
04:17 for the BBC, reporting freely when he was there.
04:20 He has left now, but you've still got correspondents working on the ground there.
04:25 They haven't reported too much problems with Hamas.
04:27 They've been able to do their work.
04:29 The other issue here, Jordana, is what happens with peace talks now?
04:33 President Biden's saying it's going to complicate what could have possibly been a ceasefire
04:38 before Monday.
04:39 Well, there are worries that it could, this incident, the aid incident, could complicate
04:47 the ceasefire and hostage release deal talks.
04:51 But right now they are making slow progress.
04:55 People's waiting to hear back from Hamas on several issues.
05:01 You know, I think this might be a hiccup, but this incident with the aid, I do not think
05:06 is going to torpedo the talks.
05:09 A much bigger factor is going to be the flexibility that both Israel and Hamas is going to be
05:15 able to show to close this deal in the coming days before Ramadan.
05:21 There's still some optimism, but certainly there's still gaps that remain.
05:25 And you know, both sides are working on that, and we'll see if we get a deal.
05:30 I think what happened in northern Gaza speaks to the absolute desperation of people there
05:37 and the failure by the international community, by Israel, by Egypt, to get aid into northern
05:44 Gaza throughout this war.
05:47 There's not enough aid as it is, but up there, there's basically 300,000 people that are
05:53 very hungry, some of them starving.
05:56 You know, children are acutely malnourished.
05:58 And one would expect that when aid trucks finally get up there, and remember, aid trucks
06:03 had come two nights before, but until then, there had not been a food delivery in almost
06:11 a month.
06:12 So we can understand why people were, thousands were coming around those trucks to get food.
06:18 It makes perfect sense.
06:20 You know, the tragedy that came afterwards is, you know, is unspeakable and incredibly
06:26 tragic.
06:27 Jordana, good to talk to you.
06:29 Jordana Miller, the ABC correspondent in Jerusalem.
06:31 Thanks.
06:32 Well, let's go.