Netanyahu admits killing of Gaza aid workers in Israeli attack

ANKARA

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday acknowledged the death of seven aid workers in an army attack in the Gaza Strip.

Seven aid workers with the US-based charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) were killed in an Israeli attack in the central Gaza Strip on Monday.

Six foreigners were among the victims when their convoy was hit as it was leaving its Deir al-Balah warehouse after unloading more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza by sea, WCK said.

Netanyahu said the death of the humanitarian aid workers was “an unintentional killing of innocents” and will be investigated, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported.

“This happens in war, we are thoroughly investigating it, we are in contact with the relevant parties and will do everything to ensure that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again,” Netanyahu added after he was discharged from hospital where he underwent surgery for a hernia earlier this week.

The Israeli army took responsibility for the attack on the aid convoy early Tuesday and vowed to launch a thorough probe into the incident.

The seven charity workers killed were nationals of Australia, Poland, the UK, and Palestine, as well as a US-Canada dual citizen.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas which killed some 1,200 people.

More than 32,900 Palestinians have since been killed and 75,500 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities. Israel has imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which on Thursday asked Israel to do more to prevent famine in Gaza.