President Joe Biden issued a statement condemning Israel following the deaths of seven humanitarian aid workers in Gaza as a result of an Israeli air-strike.
“I am outraged and heartbroken by the deaths of seven humanitarian workers from World Central Kitchen, including one American, in Gaza yesterday. They were providing food to hungry civilians in the middle of a war. They were brave and selfless. Their deaths are a tragedy,” said President Biden.
On Tuesday, an air strike by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) killed seven people working with the World Central Kitchen (WCF) humanitarian aid group, after Israel allegedly misidentified the vehicles in which they were travelling as terrorist targets.
“Unfortunately, in the last day, there was a tragic case of our forces unintentionally hitting innocent people in the Gaza Strip,” said Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu, “It happens in war, we check it to the end, we are in contact with the governments, and we will do everything so that this thing does not happen again.”
Israel has vowed to investigate the situation, but president Biden nevertheless used the incident to criticize Israel’s war against Hamas, as many Democrat voters have criticized Biden over his support for Israel.
Biden claimed that the war in Gaza has been one of the most deadly for humanitarian aid workers, and criticized Israel for a failure to prevent civilian deaths.
“Israel has also not done enough to protect civilians. The United States has repeatedly urged Israel to deconflict their military operations against Hamas with humanitarian operations, in order to avoid civilian casualties,” said Biden.
He also used the incident to call for an immediate ceasefire.
The WCK workers hailed from numerous countries:
- Saifeddin Issam Ayab Abutaha, 25, of Palestine
- Lalzawmi Frankcom, 43, of Australia
- Damian Soból, 35, of Poland
- Jacob Flickinger, 33, a US-Canadian dual citizen
- John Chapman, 57, of the U.K.
- James Henderson, 33, of the U.K.
- James Kirby, 47, of the U.K.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="27150 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=27150">2 Comments
Very sad to see this happen. It was a mistake and any person working in a war zone has to realize that things like this can happen.
But it was ok when we went after a terrorist leader with a rocket and ended up killing a bunch of kids.