Aid Convoy in Gaza Bombed Three Times by Israel

Date: 02 April 2024 - 21:23

News ID: ۱۲۵۸۸۰

GAZA STRIP (Dispatches) -- Australia, Poland, the UK and the U.S. are among several countries calling on the Zionist regime to urgently explain the circumstances of Israeli airstrikes that killed seven international aid workers in central Gaza on Monday.
World Central Kitchen (WCK) said that its workers were travelling in a “deconflicted zone” when two armored cars branded with its logo were targeted by Israeli airstrikes in Deir al-Balah.
The organization said the strikes took place despite coordination with the Israeli military about its movements. It occurred just hours after the WCK team unloaded a new shipment of 100 tonnes of food aid into Gaza.
WCK said the aid workers were from several countries, including the UK, Poland, Australia, as well as two dual Palestinian nationals (American and Canadian).
The organization said it was “immediately” pausing operations in the region.
The Zionist military released a statement confirming that its airstrike in Gaza killed seven WCK workers. It added that Israel’s top military general would review the findings of a preliminary inquiry.
Meanwhile, Zionist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted that his military had carried out an “unintended strike” on “innocent people in the Gaza Strip.”
While the Israeli statements referred to just one airstrike, a report by Haaretz on Tuesday citing military sources stated that an Israeli drone fired three missiles at the World Central Kitchen convoy.
One of the cars was attacked, and then some of the passengers in the targeted car switched to the other two vehicles, before another missile hit.
The passengers in the third car then attempted to get those who had survived the second strike out of danger - before the Israeli drone operators targeted with a third missile strike, according to the report. All seven volunteers were killed following the third strike.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed the death of citizen Lalzawmi “Zomi” Frankcom, 44, and said his government had called on the occupying regime of Israel to launch an investigation.
“This is a human tragedy that should never have occurred, that is completely unacceptable and Australia will seek full and proper accountability,” Albanese told a press conference on Tuesday.
Poland also demanded answers, after Polish aid volunteer Damian Sobol was identified as one of those killed.
“I personally asked the Israeli ambassador @YacovLivne for urgent explanations,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
UK Foreign Minister David Cameron called on Israel to immediately explain what happened.
“British Nationals are reported to have been killed, we are urgently working to verify this information and will provide full support to their families,” Cameron said on X.
Earlier on Tuesday, Spanish-American celebrity chef Jose Andres, the founder of WCK, condemned Israel over the killings, and called on the regime to “stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon”.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who was visiting a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan’s Amman, called on the Zionist regime to clarify the circumstances of the killings.
“It is urgent that Israel allow access to humanitarian aid in Gaza, as demanded by various international bodies, including the International Court of Justice,” he said.
WCK has been heavily involved in the delivery of aid to Gaza via a new maritime route from Cyprus, which delivered its second consignment of aid to the enclave last month.
The organization is currently finishing building a jetty made from the rubble of bombed buildings to ease Gaza’s food deprivation.
The president of Cyprus, from where the shipments are taking off, called for an urgent probe and said that the maritime aid corridor would continue.
“We need to double down on efforts to get aid to Gaza,” Nikos Christodoulides said.
The Gaza-based government media office condemned the attack as “another Israeli massacre”.
In a press conference from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the general director of the media office Ismail Thawabta said: “The brutal raid targeted armored vehicles that were clearly marked.”
Since Israel declared war on Gaza in early October, WCK has shipped more than 37 million meals to the territory.
For months, the UN and other humanitarian groups have been warning of famine in northern Gaza.
In late March, 70 percent of the population was suffering from catastrophic levels of hunger, according to a recent UN-backed report.
Monday’s assault comes after a series of attacks on convoys and aid seekers, including the shelling of a United Nations aid truck carrying food supplies in February.
At least 400 Palestinians seeking aid have been martyred by Israeli shelling, according to Palestinian health officials.
Additionally, Israeli strikes on aid missions have killed several Palestinian policemen working to secure food deliveries.
The International Court of Justice ordered Israel last week, in a legally binding decision, to “ensure, without delay” that humanitarian aid is provided to Gaza, encompassing essentials such as food, water, electricity, and other fundamental necessities.
The additional provisional measures ordered by the UN’s top court came amid several deaths by starvation and warnings by UN and international NGOs of imminent “man-made” famine in the Gaza Strip due to Israel’s prevention of the entry of aid through land crossings.
The court added that Palestinians in Gaza are not only facing a risk of famine, “but that famine is setting in”.
On Tuesday, Gaza’s health ministry said that 71 people were martyred in Israeli attacks on the enclave in the past 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 32,916 people since October 7.
Additionally, 75,494 people have been injured since the start of the war, 102 of them in the past 24 hours, the ministry said.