US blocks UN Security Council statement blaming Israel for deadly Gaza attack

Arab nations have failed to get immediate support for a UN Security Council statement that would have blamed Israeli forces for opening fire at Palestinians waiting for the delivery of food and other humanitarian aid near Gaza City and killing more than 100 people, the Times of Israel reports.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, told reporters after an emergency closed council meeting on the deaths, that 14 of the 15 council members supported the statement put forward by Algeria, the Arab representative on the body.

The United States did not support the statement and US deputy ambassador Robert Wood told a reporter who questioned why, “We don’t have all the facts on the ground – that’s the problem.”

Hamas-led Gaza health officials said Israeli troops fired on Feb. 29 on a large crowd of Palestinians racing to pull food off an aid convoy, killing at least 112 people and injuring 760 others.

Israel said many of the dead were trampled in a chaotic stampede and as a result of being run over by aid trucks. The IDF's chief military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israeli troops guarding the area fired warning shots toward the crowd because they felt endangered.