By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An Israeli air strike on an aid convoy carrying food and fuel to a Gaza hospital killed four Palestinians on Thursday, U.S.-based aid group Anera said as Israel claimed they were "armed assailants," which the group denied.
The four Palestinians were in the lead vehicle of an Anera aid convoy bound for the Emirati Red Crescent Hospital in Rafah in southern Gaza, the aid group said in a statement on Friday.
Soon after the convoy left the Israel-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza, four Palestinians from the community "took control of the leading vehicle, citing concern that the route was unsafe and at risk of being looted," Anera said.
"Israeli authorities allege that the lead car was carrying numerous weapons. Every initial report from those at the scene indicate that no weapons were present," the organization said.
A plan agreed with Israeli authorities called for unarmed security guards in the convoy. The four had not been vetted nor coordinated with Israeli authorities, but the convoy did not perceive them as a threat, Anera said.
Anera said there was no warning or communication before the Israeli airstrike. No Anera staff were injured. After the four were killed, the rest of the convoy delivered the aid, it said.
In a statement quoted by multiple media outlets, the Israel Defense Forces said: "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," the IDF said.
The Israeli military and the Israeli embassy in Washington could not immediately be reached for further comment.
Aid and humanitarian organizations have been hit previously in Israel's Gaza war. In April, three Israeli strikes hit a convoy of aid vehicles, killing seven World Central Kitchen staff. The United Nations World Food Programme said this week that one of its vehicles was hit by 10 bullets near an Israeli military checkpoint.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7 when Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's subsequent assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has since killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry. Nearly the entire Gaza population of 2.3 million has been displaced and the enclave has a hunger crisis. Israel faces genocide allegations at the World Court that it denies.