Canada 'horrified' by Israel killing of aid workers in Gaza

HAMILTON, Canada

Canada on Tuesday condemned Israel's deadly attack on aid workers in the Gaza Strip and demanded a full investigation.

"I am horrified to hear reports of the IDF strike taking the lives of 7 World Central Kitchen employees in Gaza yesterday, including a Canadian citizen," Foreign Minister Melanie Joly wrote on X.

Noting that “Canada expects full accountability for these killings,” Joly underscored that they will “convey this to the Israeli government directly."

"Strikes on humanitarian personnel is absolutely unacceptable. International humanitarian law must be respected," she said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also decried the attack and said, "It is absolutely unacceptable that aid workers were killed by the Israeli Defense Force."

Noting that the attack "never should have happened," Trudeau said, "We are heartbroken for the families and for the organization that has been putting people in harm's way to counter the extraordinarily devastating humanitarian crisis going on in Gaza right now."

"We obviously need full accountability and investigation in this. There needs to be clarity on how this happened," he said.

He repeated his demand for a cease-fire and stressed the need for increasing humanitarian going into Gaza.

US-based charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) confirmed that seven of its humanitarian aid workers were killed in the Israeli strike on Monday.

After the "targeted attack," the group said it was pausing operations in the region.

In addition to killing some 33,000 people since Oct. 7, the Israel offensive and siege of the strip has been blamed for near-famine conditions among over 2 million Palestinians there, and for attacks killing both aid workers and civilians seeking humanitarian aid.