Following global outcry, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel had accidentally killed seven workers for the humanitarian organization World Central Kitchen in an airstrike over Gaza. The United States and other allies then demanded an explanation.
The incident increased international pressure for measures to alleviate the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. This comes over half a year after Israel’s assault and siege of the Palestinian territory. Israel’s military expressed “sincere sorrow” over it.
The attack on the World Central Kitchen convoy claimed the lives of citizens of Australia, Britain, and Poland. Additionally, it resulted in casualties among Palestinians and a dual citizen of the United States and Canada.
Star chef Jose Andres founded WCK, a nonprofit that said its employees were moving in two armored cars with the organization’s insignia on them and another car, and they had planned their moves with the Israeli military.
“Unfortunately in the past day there was a tragic event in which our forces unintentionally harmed non-combatants in the Gaza Strip,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.
“This happens in war. We are conducting a thorough inquiry and are in contact with the governments. We will do everything to prevent a recurrence.”
A probe by “an independent, professional and expert body” was promised by the Israeli military.
Since October, the UN reports at least 196 humanitarian workers have died in Gaza. Additionally, Hamas has repeatedly accused Israel of attacking locations where relief is distributed.
On Tuesday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called Netanyahu, expressing his country’s shock at the killings, which included three Britons. Sunak’s office demanded an open, transparent, and in-depth independent investigation.
In a separate call, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese claimed to have spoken “anger and concern” to Netanyahu.
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, expressed outrage over the killings of the humanitarian workers. They asserted that Israel had a duty to protect them in Gaza, despite the lack of proof that Israel had targeted them intentionally.
To offer his sympathies, US President Joe Biden gave WCK founder Andres a call. The White House indicated that Washington will put pressure on Israel to take further steps to safeguard aid workers.
“These people are heroes, they run into the fire, not away from it,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said of the seven aid workers, speaking to reporters in Paris. “We shouldn’t have a situation where people who are simply trying to help their fellow human beings are themselves at grave risk.”
According to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, the organization has once again demanded a quick humanitarian truce in Gaza, where a famine is predicted.
Israel has consistently refuted claims that it is impeding the delivery of critically needed food aid to Gaza, which it has been besieging since October. Instead, it claims that the issue stems from the incapacity of international relief organizations to reach those in need.
According to WCK, the aid convoy was struck as it was departing its Deir al-Balah storage following the offloading of over 100 tons of food aid that had been transported to Gaza by water.
Erin Gore, CEO of World Central Kitchen, stated, “This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war.”
“This is unforgivable.”
The United Arab Emirates, which has funded the seaborne food shipments to Gaza that WCK distributed, said it was putting the shipments on hold pending safety guarantees from Israel and a thorough inquiry. The U.S.-based charity announced that it will cease operations in Gaza.
Anera, an American humanitarian organization that collaborates with WCK, announced on Tuesday that it was also stopping operations in Gaza due to security concerns.
RISING ISOLATION OF ISRAELI
Generally pro-Israel nations like Australia, Britain, and Poland all called for action to safeguard relief workers, highlighting Netanyahu’s growing diplomatic isolation over Gaza.
The world community has been putting increasing pressure on Israel to end the acute famine in Gaza, which has been caused by Israel’s offensive against Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist organization. According to Israeli authorities, 1,200 people were murdered in Hamas strikes in southern Israel on October 7, which sparked the conflict.
Since then, the majority of the 2.3 million people living there have been moved and most of the densely inhabited land has been destroyed. The Gaza health ministry, under Hamas administration, reports that over 32,000 Palestinians have died.
The United Nations and other international organizations have accused Israel of failing to safeguard the security of food convoys and creating bureaucratic barriers to assistance distribution. This accusation has been emphasized by a disaster on February 29 that claimed the lives of almost 100 people who were waiting for relief to arrive.
The dominant faction in Gaza, Hamas, has stated that Israeli targeting of relief workers is the primary issue with assistance distribution. It said in a statement following the most recent event that the attack’s goal was to intimidate and dissuade employees of foreign humanitarian organizations from carrying out their duties.
Andres said he was devastated and in mourning for the families and friends of those who lost their lives in the airstrike. Andres founded WCK in 2010 by sending cooks and food to Haiti following an earthquake.
“The Israeli government … needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon,” he stated.
Video that Reuters was able to obtain showed paramedics transporting bodies into a hospital and displaying the passports of three of the deceased, along with a sizable hole in the roof of a four-wheel-drive WCK vehicle and its inside that had been charred and destroyed.
With violence continuing in multiple regions on Tuesday with 71 individuals killed in Israeli strikes in the last 24 hours, Gaza health authorities said that the situation in the Gaza Strip is still highly precarious.
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