Israel admits mistake

Military chief: Dead aid workers were “not intentional”

A UN employee inspects the wreckage in which aid workers from the aid organization World Central Kitchen were killed.

(Bild: AFP)

Following an attack in the Gaza Strip in which seven employees of the aid organization World Central Kitchen were killed, Israel's Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi has admitted mistakes. "The attack was not carried out with the intention of harming the WCK aid workers," he said. US President Joe Biden, meanwhile, sharply criticized the attack. "This is not an isolated incident," he warned.

"It was a mistake that followed a misidentification - at night in a war under very complex conditions. This should not have happened," Halevi said in a video statement on Wednesday night. "This incident was a serious mistake," he said. This was the result of a preliminary investigation. He did not give any further details.

(Bild: Associated Press)

Israel promises to learn from incident
An independent committee will thoroughly investigate the incident and "conclude it in the next few days", the Israeli Chief of Staff continued. The army will learn from the conclusions "and implement them immediately", said Halevi. The army sympathizes "from the bottom of its heart" with the grief of the relatives and the aid organization.

Israeli prime minister speaks of "unintentional hit"
World Central Kitchen had confirmed the death of seven employees in the Gaza Strip the previous day. In a video message, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of a "tragic case of an unintentional hit by our armed forces against innocent people in the Gaza Strip". The incident is being investigated and everything will be done to ensure that this does not happen again.

A man shows the bloodstained passports of the aid workers who were killed - they came from Great Britain, Poland and Australia.

(Bild: Associated Press)

According to media reports, the death of the foreign aid workers in the Gaza Strip in the Israeli airstrike calls into question the continued supply of aid to the Palestinians in the war zone. "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.

"Nightmare come true" for aid workers
Israel risks ending up without a partner for the provision and delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the Times of Israel quoted a US government official as saying. Tess Ingram, spokeswoman for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), told the New York Times newspaper that she hoped the deaths of WCK staff in Gaza would "make the world realize that what is happening here is not okay". "The news of the attack is horrific - a nightmare come true for us," Soraya Ali, spokeswoman for the Save the Children organization, told the US newspaper.

A destroyed vehicle from World Central Kitchen

(Bild: Associated Press)

The US government also reacted with outrage to the deaths of the aid workers from World Central Kitchen and urgently demanded clarification from Israel. "More than 200 aid workers have been killed in this conflict, making it one of the worst conflicts for aid workers in recent history," said National Security Council Communications Director John Kirby on Tuesday.

Biden: "This is not an isolated incident"
US President Biden then severely reproached his ally Israel. "This is not an isolated incident", Biden lamented in a written statement on Tuesday evening (local time). "This conflict is one of the worst in recent times in terms of the number of aid workers killed." The Democrat literally criticized: "Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers who are trying to provide the civilian population with urgently needed help." This is one of the main reasons why the distribution of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip is so difficult. "Israel has also not done enough to protect the civilian population," Biden went on to lament. The United States had repeatedly called on Israel to decouple military operations against the militant Palestinian organization Hamas from humanitarian operations in order to avoid civilian casualties.

(Bild: AFP)

(Bild: AFP)

Young woman from Australia among the victims
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese personally expressed "Australia's anger and concern" over the deaths of the seven aid workers to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a telephone conversation. Albanese said this at a press conference. Among the civilian aid workers killed was a young Australian woman. Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong had previously condemned the airstrike as "outrageous and unacceptable" in a conversation with her Israeli counterpart Israel Katz. Israel would continue to lose support if it did not change its course. Israel must explain how and why the aid organization's vehicles were attacked. According to media reports, the Israeli military had been informed that the aid organization's clearly marked vehicles were on the move.

Aid organizations voluntarily share coordinates
In complex conflict zones such as the Gaza Strip, the United Nations and other aid organizations voluntarily shared the coordinates of their offices, warehouses and other facilities with the warring parties in order to avoid being accidentally hit, wrote the Wall Street Journal. Operations in the northern Gaza Strip, which is considered particularly risky, would have to be approved by the Israeli military authority COGAT, which is responsible for coordinating aid. Most applications are rejected. Nevertheless, aid convoys in Gaza have already been attacked several times, it was said. It is not clear why the so-called "deconfliction" mechanism has repeatedly failed to ensure the safety of aid workers, the US newspaper continued.