IDF claims Hamas struck convoy of Gazans fleeing south Friday, killing 70

IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus says a strike on a convoy of Gazans fleeing to the southern part of the Strip Friday appears to have been a false flag operation carried out by Hamas.

“When you apply logic and think who would benefit from those very horrible images of children and civilians that were evacuating south and then they are apparently clearly dead, who stands to gain from that, only one organization: Hamas,” Conricus says during a Q and A session on X.

At least 70 people, most of them children, were killed in the strike, which occurred on a route that Israel said should be used for fleeing Gazans. Another 200 were injured.

Conricus says he expects the army will release proof of its claim in the coming hours or days.

“We can say clearly we did not try to strike anybody, any civilians in that area,” he says.

“I don’t think it is beneath Hamas even to kill Palestinian civilians if they think it will help them in the international arena, or to create support or to try to blame Israel,” he says, calling members of the group “subhumans.”

Hamas’s media office claimed cars carrying fleeing civilians were struck in three places as they headed south from Gaza City.

Israel has accused Hamas of attempting to keep Gazans from moving south in order to keep them as human shields or PR fodder.