Dhe death of foreign aid workers in the Gaza Strip in an Israeli airstrike threatens to further isolate the Jewish state and cause additional tensions with its most important ally, the United States. US President Joe Biden made serious accusations against Israel on Tuesday evening (local time): “Israel has not done enough to protect the helpers who are trying to provide the civilian population with urgently needed aid.” This is one of the main reasons why the distribution Biden complained in a written statement that humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip was so difficult. Israel's Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi described the airstrike that killed several employees of the aid organization World Central Kitchen (WCK) as a “serious mistake.”
Israel's military chief: That shouldn't have happened
“The attack was not carried out with the intention of harming the WCK volunteers. It was a mistake that followed a misidentification – at night during a war in very complex conditions. “That shouldn’t have happened,” Halevi said in a video statement on Wednesday night. This was revealed by a preliminary investigation. An independent committee will thoroughly investigate the incident and conclude it “in the next few days”. The army will learn from the conclusions “and implement them immediately,” said the Israeli chief of staff, expressing his regret.
Biden: This is not an isolated case
“This is not an isolated incident,” Biden complained. “This conflict is one of the worst in recent memory in terms of the number of aid workers killed.” Israel has also not done enough to protect the civilian population in Gaza. Seven World Central Kitchen employees were killed in the Israeli airstrike. Israeli President Izchak Herzog apologized to the aid organization's founder, José Andrés. Herzog wrote on the X platform (formerly Twitter) that he expressed his deep regret over the “tragic loss of the lives of the WCK employees.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke in a video message of a “tragic case of an accidental hit by our armed forces against innocent people in the Gaza Strip.”
“Everyone feels threatened now,” the New York Times quoted Michael Capponi, founder of the aid organization Global Empowerment Mission, as saying on Tuesday (local time). The international community of non-governmental organizations “must be guaranteed that we are safe in our work, which is so important,” Capponi demanded. In view of the death of its employees, the World Central Kitchen organization wants to immediately stop its operations in the region and soon make decisions “about the future of our work”. Israel risks ending up without a partner to provide and deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the Times of Israel quoted a US government official as saying.
Helper: Nightmare come true
Tess Ingram, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), told the New York Times that she hopes the deaths of the WCK employees will “make the world realize that what is happening here is not happening here.” Order is.” “The news of the attack is horrific – a nightmare come true for us,” Soraya Ali, spokeswoman for Save the Children, told the newspaper. “More than 200 aid workers have been killed in this conflict, making it one of the worst conflicts for aid workers in recent history,” U.S. National Security Council Communications Director John Kirby said Tuesday.