Australian humanitarian agencies condemn ‘rising aid worker death toll in Gaza’
The Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) and seven Australian humanitarian aid organisations have issued a joint statement condemning the “rising aid worker death toll in Gaza”.
The organisations said Australian Zomi Frankcom, who was killed along with six World Central Kitchen colleagues on Monday, was one of “hundreds of humanitarian workers killed by this conflict”, including staff of some of the organisations that signed the joint statement.
“The World Central Kitchen workers were part of an international effort to address the food crisis threatening the lives of millions of Palestinians, created by blockages to the supply of aid, especially in the North of Gaza,” the statement said.
The organisations called on the Australian government to pursue diplomatic action in support of a permanent ceasefire and said polling showed four in five Australians (81 percent) are in favour of a ceasefire in Gaza.
The World Central Kitchen has said Israel was responsible for the strikes that killed its staff, but the joint statement from Australian organisations did not specify who was responsible.
UNGA president ‘outraged’ by aid workers’ killing in Israeli strike
Dennis Francis, the president of the UN General Assembly, is “outraged by the tragic killings of the World Central Kitchen aid workers by the Israeli strike”. “These were people who came to help others in the most dangerous and dire circumstances,” said Francis, who is also Trinidad and Tobago’s UN ambassador, in a post on social media.
“I simply have no words left,” he said.
The UNGA voted overwhelmingly in support of a ceasefire in December last year.
Despite the simplicity of their meal, and the rubble under their table, Khaled, Siham, and their children celebrate their Iftar during #Ramadan.
WFP is providing desperately needed food to 1.45 million people in #Gaza each month, but as #famine closes in, we need more access. We… pic.twitter.com/zPMgpq2goR
— World Food Programme (@WFP) April 3, 2024
Formal diplomatic rebuke expected over Israel’s aid worker killings
A senior Canadian government official says several nations will soon file the formal rebuke, known as a demarche, to Israel’s Foreign Ministry.
On Tuesday, a top official with Canada’s Global Affairs department also made a formal representation to the Israeli ambassador to Canada, The Associated Press quoted the unnamed official as saying.
Among the aid workers killed late on Monday was a Canadian-American dual national, as well as a Palestinian, three British citizens, and Polish and Australian nationals.
Canada wants full investigation into killing of aid workers
Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly has called for a full investigation into the killing of aid workers in Gaza, among them a Canadian citizen. Speaking on the sidelines of a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels, she said Israel needed to respect international law, adding Canada would make sure it does.
