Middle East crisis live: Germany joins calls for Israel to ‘fully explain … mass panic and shooting’ at Gaza aid site | Israel-Gaza war

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has added her voice to those who have expressed concern over events in Gaza yesterday. She posted to social media to say:

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Deeply disturbed by images from Gaza. Every effort must be made to investigate what happened and ensure transparency Humanitarian aid is a lifeline for those in need and access to it must be ensured. We stand by civilians, urging their protection in line with international law.

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Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock has demanded that Israel’s army “fully explain” how Palestinians ended up dead yesterday while they were gathered to receive humanitarian aid, an event which she said had shocked her.

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In a post on social media, she said:

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People wanted relief supplies for themselves and their families and found themselves dead. The reports from Gaza shock me. The Israeli army must fully explain how the mass panic and shooting could have happened. My condolences go out to the families of the victims.

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In Gaza people are closer to dying than to living. More humanitarian aid needs to come in. Immediately.

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We now finally need humanitarian action #Feuerpause (#ceasefire) so that the hostages are finally released from the hands of Hamas and more people don’t die in Gaza. And help can be distributed safely.

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It has just gone 1.30pm in Gaza and in Tel Aviv. Here are the headlines …

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• France has called for an independent investigation into the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza who were gathered to receive humanitarian aid on Thursday. Foreign minister Stéphane Séjourné said “We will ask for explanations, and there will have to be an independent probe to determine what happened. France calls things by their name. This applies when we designate Hamas as a terrorist group, but we must also call things by their name when there are atrocities in Gaza”. It follows earlier comments by president Emmanuel Macron, who said he felt “deep indignation at the images coming from Gaza where civilians have been targeted by Israeli soldiers.”

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• Lebanon’s foreign ministry has echoed the call for an investigation, condemning what it said was the “deliberate killing of dozens of defenseless Palestinian civilians and the wounding of hundreds”. The White House called the deaths of more than 100 Palestinians as they gathered around aid trucks “tremendously alarming”. There were starkly different accounts of how victims died in the chaos on Thursday. Israel’s military denied shooting into large crowds of hungry people and said most were killed in a crush or run over by trucks trying to escape.

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• At least 30,228 Palestinians have been killed and 71,377 have been injured in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement. The ministry gave the total casualties in the past 24 hours as 193 Palestinians killed and 920 injured, which included those killed or hurt in the aid convoy incident.

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• In its latest operational briefing, Israel’s military says it continues to operate in Khan Younis, where it claims to have “located a weapon storage facility containing numerous AK-47 rifles and ammunition”. It also claims to have targeted “a pit in which rocket launchers were concealed” and to have killed several fighters. The claims have not been independently verified.

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• A demonstration has taken place outside the US embassy in Tel Aviv calling for Joe Biden’s administration to do more to help free the 134 hostages still beleived held in Gaza by Hamas. A separate march calling for the release of the hostages has entered its third day. The march, featuring family and friends of those being held, is heading for Jerusalem.

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• Israeli security forces erected barricades at Lion’s Gate in Jerusalem to prevent worshippers from reaching the al-Aqsa mosque for Friday prayer. Several arrests appear to have been made according to videos circulating on social media. This has been a regular occurrence since 7 October.

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• More than 200 MPs from 12 countries have committed themselves to trying to persuade their governments to impose a ban on arms sales to Israel, arguing they will not be complicit in “Israel’s grave violation of international law” in its assault on Gaza.

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• In the UK, veteran political agitator George Galloway has been elected to parliament after running a byelection campaign in Rochdale chiefly about Gaza. He said established political parties in the UK “will pay a high price for the role that you have played in enabling, encouraging and covering for the catastrophe presently going on in occupied Gaza.”

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At least 30,228 Palestinians have been killed and 71,377 have been injured in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement.

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Reuters reports the ministry gave the total casualties in the past 24 hours, which include casualties from the incident where Israeli troops are accused of firing at a crowd gathered to receive humanitarian aid, as 193 Palestinians killed and 920 injured.

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Patrick Wintour is the Guardian’s diplomatic editor

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More than 200 MPs from 12 countries have committed themselves to trying to persuade their governments to impose a ban on arms sales to Israel, arguing they will not be complicit in “Israel’s grave violation of international law” in its assault on Gaza.

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The letter, organised by Progressive International, is seen as the best practical measure possible to bring public anger over the 30,000 deaths of Palestinians in Gaza into the heart of parliaments, where calls for an immediate unconditional ceasefire have so far fallen on deaf ears or been rejected by national governments.

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The organisers believe governments supplying arms are vulnerable to legal challenge given the scale of devastation in Gaza that they say extends beyond any definition of self-defence or proportionality.

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The signatories are all MPs in parliaments where the governments allow arms sales to Israel. Nine are current or former leaders of political parties.

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Read more here: Politicians from 12 countries unite to press for arms ban on Israel

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France has called for an independent investigation into the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza who were gathered to receive humanitarian aid on Thursday.

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Stéphane Séjourné, the minister for Europe and foreign affairs, told France Inter:

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We will ask for explanations, and there will have to be an independent probe to determine what happened. France calls things by their name. This applies when we designate Hamas as a terrorist group, but we must also call things by their name when there are atrocities in Gaza.

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AFP reports Séjourné said his country would not apply “double standards”, and said that if an investigation should conclude that the Israeli shooting was a war crime, “then obviously this becomes a matter for the judiciary”.

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Israel’s military has denied shooting into large crowds of hungry people and said most were killed in a crush or run over by trucks trying to escape. A spokesperson said Israeli soldiers only fired at a small group that moved away from the trucks and threatened a checkpoint. More than a hundred Palestinians were killed.

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The White House called the deaths of more than 100 Palestinians as they gathered around aid trucks “tremendously alarming”, with more reaction coming in to the incident.

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The US President Joe Biden said it would complicate delicate ceasefire negotiations in the almost five-month-old war as state department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters the United States was “urgently seeking additional information on exactly what took place”.

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Washington will be monitoring an upcoming investigation closely and “pressing for answers”, he said.

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There were starkly different accounts of how the victims died in the chaos that took place near Gaza City in the north of the strip. Israel’s military denied shooting into large crowds of hungry people and said most were killed in a crush or run over by trucks trying to escape.

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French President Emmanuel Macron called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Friday and said the situation in Gaza is “terrible”. Macron said in a post on the social platform X, formerly known as Twitter:

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Deep indignation at the images coming from Gaza where civilians have been targeted by Israeli soldiers. I express my strongest condemnation of these shootings and call for truth, justice, and respect for international law.

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United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday the incident would require an effective independent investigation. Speaking in St. Vincent and the Grenadines ahead of a regional summit, Guterres said he was “shocked” by the latest episode in the war with Israel.

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It has just gone 9.30am in Gaza and Tel Aviv. I’m Martin Belam and welcome to the latest Guardian live blog on the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis. I’ll be with you for the next while.

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Reaction to the deaths of more than 100 people as they were seeking aid in Gaza continues to come in, with US President Joe Biden saying the incident would complicate delicate ceasefire negotiations in the almost five-month-old war and the White House calling the deaths “tremendously alarming”.

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There are starkly different accounts of how the victims died in the chaos. French President Emmanuel Macron called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Friday and said in a post on social media that “I express my strongest condemnation of these shootings”.

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More on that in a moment but first, here’s a summary of the latest developments:

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• More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since 7 October, according to the latest figures by the territory’s health ministry on Thursday.

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• More than 100 Palestinians were killed as they gathered to receive humanitarian aid in Gaza City on Thursday, health officials said. At least 112 people were killed and more than 280 wounded in the incident, the Palestinian health ministry said.

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• There were conflicting reports about events leading up to the deaths. Witnesses said Israeli troops fired on a large crowd of Palestinians racing to pull food off an aid convoy, and Gaza’s health ministry described it as a “massacre”. Israel challenged the death toll and said many of the victims were run over by the trucks.

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• Hamas warned it could end hostage release negotiations after the incident. In a statement, it said: “The negotiations conducted by the movement’s leadership are not an open process at the expense of the blood of our people.”

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• Israel’s military published a video of what it claimed were people looting aid trucks in Gaza in the buildup to the incident. Due to forced relocation and the lack of access to aid, agencies have warned that much of the population in Gaza is suffering from food deprivation, with one in six children under the age of two found to be malnourished during screening in January, and reports yesterday that one in five pregnant women seen in a Gaza clinic are also malnourished.

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• Egypt and Jordan issued separate statements condemning Israel after the incident. Egypt said: “We consider targeting peaceful citizens rushing to pick up their share of aid a shameful crime and a flagrant violation of international law”.

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• The Palestinian ambassador to the UN on Thursday pleaded for the Security Council to condemn the episode in Gaza. “The Security Council should say enough is enough,” Riyad Mansour told reporters ahead of a closed-door meeting by the body, which came at the request of Algeria, reports Agence France-Presse.

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• Two Israeli men have been killed in a shooting attack at a gas station in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Thursday, Israel’s army and medics said. The Israeli military said the gunman was “neutralised” by security forces, adding that troops were pursuing other suspects in the area.

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• The US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, has said more than 25,000 women and children had been killed by Israel since 7 October. Austin added that about 21,000 precision-guided munitions had been provided to Israel since the start of its war in Gaza.

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• A month after Israeli allegations that a dozen United Nations staff were involved in the 7 October Hamas attack, UN investigators have yet to receive any evidence from Israel to support the claims though they expect some material to be forthcoming “shortly”.

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• Israel is reviewing possible curbs on access to al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem over the upcoming Ramadan fasting month, a government spokesperson said. Far-right interior security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said last week there would be a quota for people wishing to take part in prayers at the al-Aqsa mosque during Ramadan. Israel has been restricting the numbers attending the mosque since 7 October.

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Key events

Here is our video report from yesterday which showed the aftermath of the mass deaths in Gaza, and includes some of the footage released by the IDF of the incident.