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Israel claims responsibility for attack that killed 7 workers in Gaza

2024-04-02 15:32:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Israel claims responsibility for attack that killed 7 workers in Gaza

Photo from the scene

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today claimed responsibility for the attack that killed seven international aid workers, calling it "a tragic, unintentional incident."

The charity organization "World Central Kitchen" announced today that its humanitarian workers were attacked while distributing food aid that the organization had sent to Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are facing starvation caused by Israel's offensive against the militant group Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israeli officials are investigating the circumstances of last night's attack on a convoy of aid workers delivering food aid to Gaza.

"Unfortunately, a tragic incident occurred yesterday due to an unintentional attack by our forces on innocent people in the Gaza Strip. These are things that happen in war. We are doing full investigations. We will do our best to prevent such incidents from happening again," he declared.

Among the aid workers killed in the suspected Israeli attack are three British nationals, an Australian, a Pole, and a US-Canadian dual citizen worker, as well as their Palestinian driver, according to hospital records.

All those killed were employees of the charity organization 'World Central Kitchen' and according to its officials, at the time of the attack they were distributing food that was brought into Gaza by sea. They were wearing clothes with the organization's insignia.

A Palestinian near the site of the attack described the incident this way.

"My tent is 100-150 meters from here. When we heard the attack, we came running. We found the people approaching the car. It is in our nature to step in and try to help them within. We realized that one of the injured, inside the car, was a foreigner. There were four heroes, martyrs, brave people, who came with a humanitarian mission from the other side of the world to help people under occupation. They were seriously injured and died quickly," said Palestinian Nael Eliyan.

The World Central Kitchen organization said in a statement that its team was traveling to an area outside the front lines in two armored cars, identified with the organization's insignia, and a third non-armored car.

"Although we had coordinated the movements with the Israeli army, the convoy was hit while it was leaving the depot in Deir al-Balah, where our team unloaded over 100 tons of humanitarian food aid that had been sent to Gaza by sea," the organization said in a statement. .

The bodies of the workers were taken to the hospital's morgue in Deir al Balah, in the central part of the Gaza Strip, and then transported to the hospital in Rafah, near the border with Egypt.

The food charity, founded by world-renowned chef Jose Andres, announced that it was immediately suspending its operations in the region.

Some of the colleagues of the slain employees gathered on Tuesday at the Rafah hospital.

The attack on the aid workers is likely to further complicate efforts to send aid by sea to Gaza at a time when Israel has restricted aid to northern parts of the territory, where experts say the remaining population is on the brink of starvation./ VOA