Netanyahu: Aid workers killed by ‘unintended’ Israeli strike
Israel’s leader described the Israeli air strike in Gaza that killed seven aid workers, including six foreign nationals, as “unintended” and “tragic”.
“These things happen in wartime,” Netanyahu added, saying an investigation is under way. Officials are “checking this thoroughly” and “will do everything for this not to happen again”.
An earlier statement by Israeli spokesman Daniel Hagari expressed “sorrow” over the strike and said Israel’s military would carefully probe it, without directly taking responsibility.
‘We’re investigating, we’ll get back to you’
The Israeli military’s statement regarding the strike on the aid convoy that killed seven humanitarian workers in Gaza, including six foreign nationals, is one of its longest statements we’ve seen in the past six months.
This goes to show when foreign nationals are involved, Israel has to respond and it has to respond quickly.
If the victims were all Palestinians, as we’ve seen countless times, we wouldn’t get a statement like this. We’d get a simple, terse statement like we’ve seen before saying: “We’re investigating and we’ll get back to you if we have anything more.”
The fact the victims of the strike were foreign nationals means there’s an enormous amount of international pressure to come up with something. However, it’s now up to the international community whether they accept this as simply a fait accompli.
And Israel got what it wanted, "not intended" my ass.
Aid ships heading from Cyprus to Gaza to turn back with undelivered aid
Cyprus’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Theodoros Gotsis says 100 tons (90 tonnes) of aid were unloaded before World Central Kitchen suspended operations after seven of its workers were killed in an Israeli strike earlier today.
About 240 tons (220 tonnes) of aid will be turned back.
Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos said the charity is suspending its operations in Gaza out of respect for the victims as well as to review its security protocols.
Cyprus has played a key role in establishing a maritime aid corridor to Gaza from its port city of Larnaca.
Aid workers ‘part of collective punishment faced by Gaza civilians’
Alex Fort, a logistics coordinator at Doctors Without Borders, says the attack on the aid workers in Gaza is another example of how “international humanitarian law is not respected despite several deconfliction mechanisms in place to avoid such a tragedy”.
“Clearly, today it’s not possible to work in a safe way on the whole of the Gaza Strip. Humanitarian aid workers, health workers are directly targeted – and this is completely unacceptable,” he told Al Jazeera, speaking from the occupied East Jerusalem.
Fort said that this was not the first time such a “tragic” attack had happened since the start of the war, noting that MSF has faced such incidents several times that led “to the death of five of our colleagues”.
“This needs to stop and each incident needs serious investigation. For us, for example, all incidents we had, we requested serious investigation and we never get any feedback from the Israeli authorities,” Fort added.
“Aid workers are risking their life every day to provide assistance to the population and they are clearly part of the whole collective punishment that the civilian people of Gaza are facing every day.”
Anera suspends relief operations in Gaza Strip
The organisation, which runs the second largest humanitarian operation in Gaza after UNRWA, has said it is suspending its work in the besieged coastal enclave following yesterday’s attack on World Central Kitchen (WCK) workers by Israeli forces.
“The killing of WCK humanitarians, occurring less than a month after the still-unexplained killing of Anera staff member Mousa Shawwa, alongside the loss of numerous other aid workers and their families, has led our team to conclude that delivering aid safely is no longer feasible,” Anera said in a statement.
“The ongoing targeting of humanitarian workers and the lack of adequate safety measures demand thorough investigation and immediate action. Israel bears the ultimate responsibility for ensuring the unhindered delivery of urgent humanitarian assistance and basic services to those in need,” it said.
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