Aid group says Israeli strike on Gaza convoy kills four Palestinians

(File image) Aid trucks entering Gaza from Egypt via the Rafah crossing

Four Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on an aid convoy in southern Gaza on Thursday, the US-based aid group Anera says.

A statement said the "community members" were in the lead vehicle of a convoy which was carrying food and fuel to the Emirates Red Crescent hospital in Rafah from the Kerem Shalom border crossing and whose movements were co-ordinated with the Israeli military.

The military said it targeted "a number of armed assailants" who seized control of the lead vehicle.

Anera said none of its staff were harmed in the strike and that the remainder of the convoy successfully delivered the aid.

In a statement published on Friday, Anera said the transport plan for the aid convoy to Rafah had been co-ordinated and cleared with Israeli authorities and that its agreement with transit company Move One had called for unarmed security guards.

"Shortly after departing Kerem Shalom, initial reports indicate that four community members with experience in previous missions and engagement in community security with Move One came forward in a car and requested to take the place of the leading vehicle, citing concern that the route was unsafe and at risk of being looted," it said.

"The four community members were neither vetted nor co-ordinated in advance, and Israeli authorities allege that the lead car was carrying numerous weapons," it added. "However, the four individuals were not perceived by the convoy as a hostile threat."

One of Anera's employees "witnessed the incident at close range" from the second vehicle in the convoy but was not harmed.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement, which did not give a death toll, that “during the convoy’s movement, a number of armed assailants seized control of the vehicle in the front of the convoy... and began to lead it”.

“After the takeover and further verification that a precise strike on the armed assailants’ vehicle could be carried out, a strike was conducted," it added.

"No damage was caused to the other vehicles in the convoy and it reached its destination."

Anera said the Israeli strike was carried out without prior warning or communication.

“According to all the information we have, this is a case of partners on the ground endeavouring to deliver aid successfully,” says Anera President and CEO Sean Carroll. “This should not come at the cost of people’s lives.”

The aid group is conducting a review of the incident.

It came a day after the UN World Food Programme said it had paused the movement of its staff in the Gaza Strip "until further notice", after its team came under fire near an Israeli checkpoint in northern Gaza on Tuesday.

A US diplomat said on Thursday that Israel had told Washington that the incident was "a result of a communication error between IDF units".

"We have urged them to immediately rectify the issues within their system that allowed this to happen," Robert Wood, the deputy US envoy to the UN, told a UN Security Council meeting.

The IDF promised to improve deconfliction for aid convoys after admitting that "grave mistakes" had led to an air strike in April that killed seven World Central Kitchen workers..

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October by Hamas, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.

More than 40,600 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.