Foreign minister Antonio Tajani has called on the Jewish state to "establish what happened" after 100 Palestinians were killed and over 760 were injured during an aid delivery in the war-devastated Gaza Strip when ruling Islamist group Hamas claims Israel shot at civilians.
"We call on the Netanyahu government to establish what happened in these hours and to protect civilians," Tajani said in interview with Italian daily Quotidiano Nazionale.
Hamas called Thursday's deaths "a massacre", citing "undeniable" evidence of direct firing at citizens, including headshots aimed at immediate killing".
Israel claims most of Thursday's victims were killed in a crush after it fired warning shots to disperse a mob of thousands of people swarming around a convoy of 30 lorries carrying Egyptian aid along a "humanitarian corridor"on the outskirts of Gaza City, which soldiers were securing.
The United Nations, European Union and France have condemned the incident in northern Gaza, where the UN chief Antonio Guterres said the world body has been unable to deliver aid in over a week and where it warns famine is looming.
The international community must "convince Israel and Hamas to agree an immediate ceasefire to allow the arrival of humanitarian aid and the release of hostages," Tajani stated.
"We plan to help the Palestinians with better coordination of the aid to be sent to Gaza of by humanitarian organizations: from the Red Cross to the FAO (UN Food and Agriculture Organisation)," Tajani said.
Earlier this week, Hamas officials said there had been no breakthrough in the mediated talks with Israel aimed at pausing the war and freeing over 100 hostages still being held in the Gaza strip.
More than 200 hostages were abducted during Hamas' cross-border rampage on 7 October, in which some 1,200 people were killed, according to Israel.
Over 30,000 people, including 21,000 children and women, have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched a retaliatory military offensive on 8 October, over 70,400 people have been injured and around 7,000 are missing, according to Gaza's health ministry.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza is described by the UN and aid organisations as "catastrophic" with food and water scarce, the blockaded coastal strip's infrastructure destroyed, a general shortage of medicines and medical care and cases of infectious diseases soaring.
A quarter of Gaza's 2.3 million inhabitants is at risk of famine and most are homeless, the UN says.
