On Thursday, Feb. 21, a tragic incident unfolded during food aid distribution in Gaza, resulting in over 100 Palestinian civilians killed and more than 700 injured. The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza attributes the incident to the Israel Defense Forces.
Officials said that Israeli soldiers opened fire while hungry and desperate Palestinians were just trying to get food supplies. Israel has denied the allegation.
Now, Arab nations are trying to push a UN motion blaming Israel for the incident. Unfortunately, the U.S. decided to block it. Here's why.
Deadly Gaza Aid Convoy Incident Update: US Blocks UN Motion Blaming Israel
According to The Times of Israel, Arab countries tried getting immediate support for a UN Security Council motion that would blame the IDF for the deadly aid convoy incident in Gaza.
Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour said that 14 out of the 15 council members supported the motion against Israel during a closed meeting.
Algeria presented a draft declaration attributing the incident to Israeli forces opening fire. Despite Algeria's expression of deep concern in its UN motion draft, the U.S. did not support the statement.
"The parties are working on some language to see if we can get to a statement," said U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood. "The problem is that we don't have all the facts here," he added.
More Countries Blame Israel for Deadly Gaza Aid Convoy Incident
CBS News reported that an increasing number of countries are now blaming Israel for the food aid convoy tragedy that happened in the Gaza Strip.
Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia condemned the Israeli government for the incident on Friday, Mar. 1. Now, Turkey and China are joining these nations, alleging Israeli soldiers' responsibility for the deadly incident
But, Israel has claimed that the tragedy wasn't caused by their soldiers present during the aid distribution.
According to the Times of Israel report, Israeli officials blame the tragedy on a stampede. They added that most people died because of it and asserted that only less than 10 of the casualties were caused by Israeli fire.