Israel admits ‘serious failures’ over deadly strike on WCK aid workers in Gaza: Live

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World Central Kitchen demands the creation of an independent commission to investigate killings of its aid workers by Israel‘s Defence Forces (IDF), the aid charity said in a statement.

“The IDF cannot credibly investigate its own failure in Gaza,” it said.

In a statement after the Israeli military dismissed two officers over drone strikes that killed seven workers from World Central Kitchen, the aid organisation said: “The IDF has acknowledged its responsibility and its fatal errors in the deadly attack on our convoy in Gaza.

“It is also taking disciplinary action against those in command, and committed to other reforms. These are important steps forward.

“However, it is also clear from their preliminary investigation that the IDF has deployed deadly force without regard to its own protocols, chain of command and rules of engagement.

“The IDF has acknowledged that our teams followed all proper communications procedures. The IDF’s own video fails to show any cause to fire on our personnel convoy, which carried no weapons and posed no threat.

“Without systemic change, there will be more military failures, more apologies and more grieving families.

“The root cause of the unjustified rocket fire on our convoy is the severe lack of food in Gaza.

“Israel needs to dramatically increase the volume of food and medicine traveling by land if it is serious about supporting humanitarian aid.”

Humanitarian volunteers have paid a terrible price for delivering vital aid to people trapped in Gaza’s danger zones.

As experts say the UN has recorded the highest number of staff fatalities since the Second World War, Bel Trew assesses the chilling impact of Israeli airstrikes on the food charity convoy:

A Palestinian aid worker back at their base in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, told The Independent he was waiting for the team to get home.

But just after 10pm local time, Israel pounded the three-vehicle convoy, killing all seven aid workers including three British citizens. This, despite the fact they were travelling in a deconflicted zone in cars branded with the WCK logo and their movements were coordinated with the Israelis.

More than 220 humanitarian workers have been killed in the conflict, according to the U.N.

“Let’s be very clear. This is tragic, but it is not an anomaly,” Scott Paul, of the humanitarian group Oxfam, said Thursday in a briefing with other relief organizations before the results of Israel’s investigation were released. “The killing of aid workers in Gaza has been systemic.”

The army declined to answer questions about whether similar violations of rules of engagement have taken place during the war — in which Palestinians, aid workers and international rights groups have repeatedly accused the army of recklessly striking civilians.

Israel’s findings into the incident claim that they identified two gunmen on one of the World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid trucks.

They claimed that one of their commanders assumed the gunmen were Hamas militants. Following this assumption, they did not identify the aid trucks as WCK.

They then targeted the three WCK trucks.

Israel’s investigation into the bombing of seven aid workers was led by Yoav Har-Even, a retired military officer, who on Friday said two military officers have been dismissed over the drone strikes on aid workers.

Israel has admitted its forces made a “grave mistake” after seven aid workers with World Central Kitchen were killed in an airstrike.

The humanitarian group, which delivers food aid to war and disaster zones, said the seven were returning from coordinating an aid shipment in central Gaza when their three car convoy was struck and they were killed.

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He writes: “Conservative Friends of Israel boasts that its membership includes 80 per cent of Tory MPs. It can whistle up cabinet ministers for its lunches and dinners, and has superb access to Downing Street, Westminster and Whitehall. There are queues round the block to its famous party at the annual Tory conference.

“The Conservative historian and politician Robert Rhodes James defined the CFI as ‘the largest organisation in Western Europe dedicated to the cause of the people of Israel.

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