The Israeli army recognized on Wednesday a “serious error” after the strike which killed seven collaborators of the humanitarian NGO World Central Kitchen in the Gaza Strip, a tragedy which aroused international consternation. It is “a serious error” which “should not have happened,” said Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi in a video message, referring to “misidentification” in “very complex conditions” .
On Tuesday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog presented his “sincere apologies” and expressed his “deep sadness” for this strike, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as “unintentional” and “tragic”.
The NGO suspends its operations in the region
Based in the United States, the NGO World Central Kitchen, one of the few still operating in the Palestinian territory devastated by nearly six months of war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas, announced that it was “suspending its operations in the region” after the strike on Monday in Deir al-Balah (center).
Several countries and organizations, including the UN which denounced a “disregard for international humanitarian law”, condemned this strike, the deadliest to have affected international humanitarian personnel since the start of the war.
US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday he was “outraged” and “heartbroken”, believing that Israel does not “enough” protect volunteers coming to the aid of the “starving” Palestinian population. “It is unacceptable. But it is the inevitable result of the way the war is being fought,” noted the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, repeating his call for an immediate ceasefire, for the liberation hostages and the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza. The death of the seven members of World Central Kitchen brings the total number of humanitarian workers killed during this conflict to 196, “including more than 175 from the UN”, he recalled.
International outrage
WCK said it was “devastated” by the death of the members of its team, the “heroes” whose names, photos and nationalities it published overnight on X: Saifeddine Issam Ayad Aboutaha, 25 years old, Palestinian; Lalzawmi (Zomi) Frankcom, 43, Australian; Damian Sobol, 35, Polish; Jacob Flickinger, 33, American-Canadian, as well as John Chapman, 57, James (Jim) Henderson, 33 and James Kirby, 47, British.
“I am heartbroken and dismayed that we, World Central Kitchen and the world, lost beautiful lives today due to a targeted attack by Israeli forces,” said WCK President Erin Gore .
Since the start of the war, WCK has participated in humanitarian operations by providing meals in the Palestinian territory, where the majority of the approximately 2.4 million inhabitants are threatened with famine according to the UN. She helped send the first aid boat from Cyprus via a maritime corridor to Gaza in mid-March.
Israel’s historic allies, the United States, have called for a “rapid and impartial” investigation. The UK summoned Israel’s ambassador on Tuesday to express its “unequivocal condemnation”. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, for his part, indicated on Wednesday that he had expressed to Mr. Netanyahu the “anger” of the Australian people “in the face of this tragedy”.
On Monday, an AFP correspondent saw five bodies and three foreign passports near the remains of the victims. Those of the six Westerners must be brought to the Rafah border post on Wednesday with a view to their repatriation, said Marwan al Hams, director of the Abu Najar hospital in this city bordering Egypt.
Nearly 33,000 people were killed in Israeli operations
Since the start of the war, several NGOs present in Gaza have claimed that their employees or sites had been hit by Israeli strikes. Due to the difficulty of bringing humanitarian aid by land into the territory under Israeli blockade, a first humanitarian aid boat reached Gaza from Cyprus in mid-March. But a second boat, the Jennifer, which was close to the Gaza coast, turned around and returned to its starting point with nearly 240 tons of undelivered food, after the strike which led to the suspension of WCK activities .
On October 7, Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza carried out an attack in southern Israel which resulted in the death of at least 1,160 people, mainly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data. According to Israel, around 250 people were kidnapped and 130 of them are still hostages, including 34 who died in Gaza.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched an intense aerial bombardment campaign on Gaza, followed by a ground offensive that saw its soldiers advance from the north to the south of the small strip of land. At least 32,916 people, most of them civilians, were killed in Israeli operations, punctuated by incessant bombardments, the Hamas health ministry said.
Families of hostages held in Gaza gather in Jerusalem for the fourth evening in a row
On Monday, after 18 days of operations, Israeli troops withdrew from the al-Chifa hospital complex in Gaza, leaving behind immense destruction and dead bodies. The army said it had “killed more than 200 terrorists and arrested more than 900 people” and accused Hamas, considered a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union, of having used the hospital as a “command center.” The Hamas-run Gaza Civil Defense reported 300 deaths in and around the hospital in Israeli operations.
“Condemnation and denunciation are not enough in the face of the crimes that continue in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Jerusalem,” said the new Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Mohammed Mustafa, on Tuesday. The Hamas health ministry reported early Wednesday that 60 people had been killed in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours.
In Jerusalem, for the fourth consecutive evening, families of hostages held in Gaza and opponents of Mr. Netanyahu’s government gathered in front of Parliament on Tuesday to shout their anger at the Prime Minister’s policies. “You are leading a campaign against me, against the families of the hostages, you have turned against us. You call us ‘traitors’ when YOU are the traitor, a traitor to your people, to your voters, to the State of Israel ” shouted into the microphone Einav Zangauker, whose son is being held hostage in Gaza.
On Wednesday, four Israeli police officers were injured in a vehicular attack at a checkpoint in Kochav Yair, in central Israel, police reported Wednesday, adding that the attacker was dead.