Bodies of foreign aid workers killed in Gaza strike to be repatriated
The bodies of six foreign aid workers killed in a Gaza strike are expected to be transported out via Egypt on Wednesday, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Israeli bombardment killed seven staff of the US-based food charity World Central Kitchen on Monday in an attack that UN chief António Guterres labelled “unconscionable” and “an inevitable result of the way the war is being conducted”.
The remains of the six international staff, who were killed alongside one Palestinian colleague, were set to be taken out of Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, said Marwan al-Hams, director of the city’s Abu Youssef al-Najjar hospital.
Key events
The families of Israeli hostages have staged four consecutive nights of mass protests, joined by a resurgent anti-government movement, reports AFP.
According to the news agency, thousands gathered in front of Israel’s parliament on Tuesday, with former prime minister Ehud Barak blaming Netanyahu for the 7 October “disaster” and demanding new elections.
Bernie Sanders to Benjamin Netanyahu: ‘Stop murdering innocent people’
Martin Pengelly
The Vermont senator and former US presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has a message for the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu: “Stop murdering innocent people.”
Sanders delivered his blunt message in an interview with MSNBC on Tuesday, a day after seven aid workers were killed by an Israeli strike in Gaza.
“Stop murdering innocent people,” Sanders said. “Two-thirds of the people who have been killed, over 32,000 people have been killed [in Gaza], are women and children. This is inexcusable.”
Netanyahu is unlikely to heed advice from the Democratic socialist senator, a hero to the US left who sits as an independent but caucuses with Democrats. But Sanders’ words will be heard across a Democratic party in upheaval over Israel’s war against Hamas and the Biden administration’s reluctance to rein in Netanyahu.
You can read the full piece by Martin Pengelly in Washington here:
Bodies of foreign aid workers killed in Gaza strike to be repatriated
The bodies of six foreign aid workers killed in a Gaza strike are expected to be transported out via Egypt on Wednesday, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Israeli bombardment killed seven staff of the US-based food charity World Central Kitchen on Monday in an attack that UN chief António Guterres labelled “unconscionable” and “an inevitable result of the way the war is being conducted”.
The remains of the six international staff, who were killed alongside one Palestinian colleague, were set to be taken out of Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, said Marwan al-Hams, director of the city’s Abu Youssef al-Najjar hospital.
Prosecutors in the home city of the Polish aid worker killed in Gaza have launched an investigation into his killing, reports Reuters citing state news agency PAP.
“We have started an investigation into the killing of Polish citizen Damian Sobol on April 1-2 in the Gaza Strip as a result of an attack by the Israeli armed forces using explosives,” Beata Starzecka, the deputy district prosecutor in Przemysl, told PAP.
59 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, says health ministry
The latest figures from the Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said 59 Palestinians were killed and 83 injured in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours.
According to the statement, at least 32,975 Palestinians have been killed and 75,577 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October.
The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
The UK should stop arming Israel, a former national security adviser has said, after seven international aid workers were killed in Gaza in an Israeli airstrike.
Lord Ricketts, who was also the former permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Sometimes in conflict, you get a moment where there’s such global outrage that it crystalises a sense that things can’t go on like this.”
The seven aid workers, who had been delivering food aid to Gaza, were killed on Tuesday after reportedly being repeatedly targeted by an Israeli drone. Those killed – three British citizens, a Palestinian, a US-Canadian dual citizen, a Pole and an Australian – were working for the World Central Kitchen (WCK), an international charity that has brought hundreds of tonnes of food aid into Gaza.
Ricketts said the international community “needs to look at further steps to increase the pressure on [Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu,” adding that the UK should stop arming Israel.
“I think there’s abundant evidence now that Israel hasn’t been taking enough care to fulfil its obligations on the safety of civilians. And a country that gets arms from the UK has to comply with international humanitarian law. That’s a condition of the arms export licence. So honestly, I think the time has come to send that signal.
“It won’t change the course of the war. It would be a powerful political message. And it might just stimulate debate in the US as well, which would be the real gamechanger if the Americans began to think about putting limits restrictions on the use of American weapons in Israel”
You can read the full piece by Sammy Gecsoyler here:
Pope Francis expressed his “deep sorrow” on Wednesday for the deaths of seven charity workers killed by an Israeli strike while they were delivering aid in Gaza, reports the news agency, Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“I express my deep sorrow for the volunteers killed while they were distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza,” the 87-year-old pontiff said during his weekly audience at the Vatican.“I pray for them and their families.”
He renewed his appeal for access to humanitarian aid for the “exhausted and suffering civilian population” of Gaza, and for the hostages taken by Hamas to be released.
Polish PM Tusk says Gaza aid worker deaths caused ‘understandable anger’
An attack that killed aid workers, including a Polish national, in Gaza and the reaction of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu have caused “understandable anger” and are straining relations with Warsaw, Poland’s prime minister said on Wednesday, reports Reuters.
“Mr prime minister Netanyahu, Mr ambassador Livne the vast majority of Poles showed full solidarity with Israel after the Hamas attack,” Donald Tusk wrote on social media platform X.
“Today you are putting this solidarity to a really hard test. The tragic attack on volunteers and your reaction arouse understandable anger.”
Panie premierze Netanjahu, panie ambasadorze Liwne, zdecydowana większość Polaków okazała pełną solidarność z Izraelem po ataku Hamasu. Dzisiaj poddajecie tę solidarność naprawdę ciężkiej próbie. Tragiczny atak na wolontariuszy i wasza reakcja budzą zrozumiałą złość.
— Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) April 3, 2024
My colleague, Daniel Hurst, Guardian Australia’s foreign affairs and defence correspondent, has more reaction from the Australian government to the Gaza aid convoy strike. You can read his full piece at the link below, but here is a snippet:
Despite Netanyahu’s public comment that such things happened in times of war, Albanese said the Israeli prime minister in the phone call “did accept responsibility” for the tragedy “so there was no equivocation there”.
But the Australian foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, had a sharper response to Netanyahu.
“I would say to Mr Netanyahu that wartime does not obviate responsibility for observing international humanitarian law, including the protection of aid workers,” Wong told the ABC.
She noted that the conflict in Gaza had been “particularly fatal for aid workers” and cited UN figures that about 196 aid workers had been killed. “This is unacceptable.”
Wong, who also spoke with the Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz on Tuesday evening, reiterated that “unless Israel, Mr Netanyahu, changes his course of action, Israel will continue to lose [international] support”.
“We say to Mr Netanyahu: you must change course,” Wong said.
Australian prime minister conveys ‘anger and concern’ to Netanyahu over Gaza aid convoy strike – video
Anthony Albanese says he has spoken with Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling him that Australians were ‘outraged’ over the death of aid worker Zomi Frankcom in an Israeli airstrike.
“There is a need for a thorough investigation into what happened here and prime minister Netanyahu committed to that,” Albanese said, before describing Frankcom as someone “who we can all be proud of”.
You can watch and listen to Albanese’s comments in this video:
UK prime minister calls for investigation as British aid workers killed in Israeli airstrike named
Rishi Sunak has called for an urgent investigation into the deaths of three British aid workers working for the charity World Central Kitchen who were killed by an Israeli airstrike that hit an aid convoy in Gaza.
WSK confirmed that British victims John Chapman, 57, James “Jim” Henderson, 33, and James Kirby, 47, who were working for the charity’s security team, were among seven of its staff killed.
The team’s leader, Lalzawmi “Zomi” Frankcom, 43, an Australian national, also died, along with American-Canadian dual citizen Jacob Flickinger, 33, Polish national Damian Sobol, 35, and Palestinian Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha, 25.
The UK prime minister said far too many aid workers and ordinary civilians had lost their lives in Gaza during a conversation with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Tuesday.
David Cameron, the UK foreign secretary, spoke to his Israeli counterpart, Israel Katz, and requested an urgent explanation of the incident.
A Downing Street spokesperson said the prime minister “was appalled by the killing of aid workers, including three British nationals, in an airstrike in Gaza … and demanded a thorough and transparent independent investigation into what happened”.
The spokesperson added: “The prime minister said far too many aid workers and ordinary civilians have lost their lives in Gaza and the situation is increasingly intolerable.”
You can read the full piece by Eleni Courea, Emine Sinmaz and Nadeem Badshah here:
Biden says Israel is not doing enough to protect aid workers and calls for inquiry
Jonathan Yerushalmy
Joe Biden has said that Israel is not doing enough to protect aid workers and has called for a swift investigation into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) drone attack in Gaza which killed seven people working for the World Central Kitchen (WCK) charity.
“This conflict has been one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have been killed,” the US president said, in comments that were highly critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza.
The strike on the WCK convoy killed citizens of Australia, Britain and Poland as well as Palestinians and a dual citizen of the US and Canada. Early on Wednesday, the IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi put the strike down to “misidentification”, adding that the “the strike was not carried out with the intention of harming WCK aid workers,” and that it was a mistake that should not have happened.
Biden said he was “outraged and heartbroken” by the aid workers’ deaths and highlighted that this was not a standalone incident.
“This is a major reason why distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza has been so difficult – because Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians … Israel has also not done enough to protect civilians.”
You can read the full piece by Jonathan Yerushalmy here:
This explainer provides some key information on the Gaza aid convoy strike, such as what happened and who the victims were:
Charities halt Gaza aid after drone attack that killed seven workers
Bethan McKernan
The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza seems likely to worsen after charities announced they are suspending operations in the territory in the aftermath of an Israeli drone attack which repeatedly targeted a clearly identified convoy of international aid workers, killing seven.
The strikes on a team from World Central Kitchen (WCK) led the charity – along with other aid organisations such as Anera, which helps refugees around the Middle East, and the US-based Project Hope, which focuses on healthcare – to announce on Tuesday that it would pause operations in Gaza to protect its staff.
Calling the decision an “unprecedented step”, Anera said the killings, “alongside the loss of numerous other aid workers and their families, has led our team to conclude that delivering aid safely is no longer feasible”.
“While we understand the severe consequences this suspension will have on the Palestinian population, the escalating risks associated with aid delivery leave us with no choice but to halt operations until our staff regain confidence that they can do their work without undue risk,” a statement said.
You can read the full piece by Bethan McKernan here:
Opening summary
It has just gone 11am in Gaza and Tel Aviv. This is our latest Guardian live blog on the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis.
US president Joe Biden has said Israel is not doing enough to protect aid workers and has called for a swift investigation into the attack in Gaza which killed seven people working for the World Central Kitchen (WCK) charity.
“This conflict has been one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have been killed,” the Biden said, in comments that were highly critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza.
More on that in a moment but first, here’s a summary of the latest developments:
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US secretary of state Antony Blinken has called the World Central Kitchen humanitarian workers killed in Gaza “heroes.” Blinken is in Paris, meeting with government ministers in the French capital, and took part in a press conference after a meeting at the ministry of foreign affairs. He has called for “a swift, a thorough and impartial investigation.”
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Israel’s prime minister has admitted Israeli forces killed the World Central Kitchen workers in Gaza in an airstrike yesterday. Saying “This happens in wartime,” Benjamin Netanyahu described it as “a tragic case of our forces unintentionally hitting innocent people in the Gaza Strip.”
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Three of the seven people killed were British nationals. The UK summoned the Israeli ambassador in London saying Israel must “put in place an effective deconfliction mechanism immediately and urgently to scale up humanitarian access”. The UK’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, said the deaths were “completely unacceptable”.
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France’s foreign minister, Stéphane Séjourné, on Tuesday said his country “strongly condemned” the Israeli airstrike, which “nothing can justify”.
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Israel has said it plans to open a joint situation room with international groups to enable the coordination of humanitarian aid. WCK said in its statement about the attack that “Despite coordinating movements with the IDF, the convoy was hit as it was leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse.”
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Cyprus said on Tuesday afternoon that ships that recently arrived in Gaza were turning back with 240 tonnes of undelivered aid. “At least two-thirds of the assistance is on its way back,” Cyprus’s foreign minister spokesperson, Theodoros Gotsis, told the Guardian.
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UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric has said that the organisation’s secretary-general António Guterres condemns an attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, calling for “utmost restraint”. The attack, which killed at least 11 people, including a senior commander in the al-Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), has been widely attributed to Israel. Turkey said the attack was a violation of international law by Israel. Iran’s leaders in Tehran described the targeting of a diplomatic mission late on Monday as unprecedented and promised a harsh response.
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Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant said Israel would “act everywhere, every day to prevent the force buildup of our enemies. We are in a multi-front war, in the offence and defence. We see evidence of this every day, including in recent days”. He said Israel was acting “to make it clear to everyone who acts against us, all over the Middle East, that the price for acting against Israel will be a heavy price.”
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Israel’s delegation will return from Cairo having formulated a new proposal for a ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas, according to reports.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) said the destruction of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza amounted to “ripping the heart out” of the health system of the territory.
