 "A person holding a placard picturing Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom marches to the Parliament of Victoria during a a pro-Palestinian demonstration. Reuters")
An Israeli minister has denied allegations about Israeli forces deliberately attacking the seven aid workers of World Central Kitchen (WCK) in Gaza after the organisation’s head accused Tel Aviv of targeting his employees “systematically, car by car”.
Talking to BBC, Israeli Economy Minister Nir Barkat rejected WCK founder José Andrés’ accusations, calling them “nonsense.”
Meanwhile, Israel admitted that the strike that killed WCK’s aid workers was a “grave mistake” and vowed to launch an investigation into the attack.
Barkat reiterated Israel’s stance on the attack, saying, “Israel is terribly sorry” adding that “unfortunately, in wars friendly fire happens”.
The minister also said that the deaths of aid workers and civilians are “part of the war.”
‘Attack happened systematically’
In an emotional interview with Reuters, José Andrés, a celebrity chef, said, “This was not just a bad luck situation where ‘oops’ we dropped the bomb in the wrong place.”
“This was over a 1.5, 1.8 kilometers, with a very defined humanitarian convoy that had signs in the top, in the roof, a very colorful logo that we are obviously very proud of,” he said. It’s “very clear who we are and what we do.”
Andrés claimed that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) was aware of the convoy’s whereabouts and called for an investigation into the incident by the US government.
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More Shorts“They were targeting us in a deconflicting zone, in an area controlled by IDF. They knowing that it was our teams moving on that road … with three cars,” he added.
‘No trust in Israeli investigation’
Another US-based humanitarian organisation called American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera) working in Gaza said that Israel’s investigation into the attack cannot be trusted.
President of Nera, Sean Carroll said, “Any incident of this gravity, of this seriousness, you really need independent investigators. In this case, Israel has earned no trust on its investigations of these incidents.”
Anera, like WCK, has paused its work in Gaza to provide 150,000 meals per day.