‘You Mean Starving People?’: Channel 4’s Cathy Newman Challenges IDF Spox On Gaza Aid Convoy ‘Mob’
Channel 4 News host Cathy Newman challenged Israeli Defence Force (IDF) spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner on his characterisation of starving Gazans killed while trying to access aid as a “mob.”
On Thursday the Gaza Health Ministry blamed the IDF after more than 100 Palestinians were killed and many more wounded in an incident that morning as an aid convoy made its way through a humanitarian corridor into Gaza.
Sky News shared eyewitness testimony from an individual being treated in hospital for gunshot wounds, claiming that the IDF opened fire as people pulled supplies from the trucks and did so again when people returned. In footage acquired by Al Jazeera gunfire can be heard as people flee.
The IDF denied shooting at people or the convoy and that people were injured “as a result of pushing, trampling and being run over by trucks.” It said that its soldiers had only fired warning shots to “disperse the mob” after a crowd “ambushed the aid convoy bringing it to a halt.” The IDF then released aerial footage of crowds around the aid trucks as evidence for its explanation.
Appearing on Channel 4 News, Lerner gave the IDF’s assessment of what happened: “A mob stormed the convoy, bringing it at some state to a halt. But in the state of chaos on the site, people were being pushed, trampled, and in some cases run over.”
Newman asked: “When you say a mob, do you mean starving people who have been deprived of food because you haven’t let the aid in? The UN officials told us that no aid has been allowed into northern Gaza for more than a month.”
The spokesman replied: “The UN obviously aren’t up to date on their information. The last four days, convoys, like we conducted this morning, this morning was 38 truckloads, passed into northern Gaza to distribute food supplies…”
“And you spoke of a mob,” the host said. “I want to put to you what Save the Children said. They said: ‘While children die from lack of food, their parents are killed trying to get it for them.’ That’s the reality, isn’t it? These are starving people, desperate for anything they can get their hands on.”
Lerner replied: “Cathy, the incident on the convoy this morning was nothing to do with Israel. The IDF secured the convoy. It went through and it got it out of hand on the ground as people were looting the trucks.
Newsman added: “Your troops fired shots.”
Lerner denied it: “No, there were warning shots fired. And then when it got out of hand, the forces retreated back into the formation. That was not true. That is just a blatant lie. That is absolutely inaccurate.”
“So why do you think people are so angry then?” the host asked.
The spokesman said: “I think there are a lot of things that are going on these days. And, of course, it is a dire situation.”
