US President Joe Biden has criticised Israel, stating it has not "done enough" to protect civilians, expressing "outrage" over the deadly strike that killed seven aid workers, including one American, in Gaza.
Seven aid workers employed by the World Central Kitchen, a charity delivering food to besieged Palestinians, were killed in the Israeli airstrike in Gaza on Tuesday. The victims included three British nationals, an Australian, a Polish national, an American-Canadian dual citizen, and a Palestinian.
In a statement on Tuesday, Biden said he is "outraged and heartbroken" by the tragic incident.
Read more: World Central Kitchen aid workers killed in Gaza bombing
“They were providing food to hungry civilians in the middle of a war. They were brave and selfless. Their deaths are a tragedy. Israel has pledged to conduct a thorough investigation into why the aid workers’ vehicles were hit by airstrikes. That investigation must be swift, it must bring accountability, and its findings must be made public,” he said.
“Even more tragically, this is not a stand-alone incident. This conflict has been one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have been killed. This is a major reason why distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza has been so difficult – because Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians,” Biden said.
Read more: Iran's Revolutionary Guards say Israeli strike in Syria's Damascus killed seven officers
Biden said incidents like this should not happen, adding that Israel has not done enough to protect civilians. He said the United States has repeatedly urged Israel to deconflict their military operations against Hamas with humanitarian operations to avoid civilian casualties, he said.
Biden said the US will continue to do all "we can to deliver humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians in Gaza, through all available means. I will continue to press Israel to do more to facilitate that aid. And we are pushing hard for an immediate ceasefire as part of a hostage deal. I have a team in Cairo working on this right now”.
Earlier in the day, Biden conversed with Chef José Andrés, the founder of World Central Kitchen, to express his condolences for the deaths of these valiant aid workers and his ongoing support for Andrés and his team's unwavering and heroic endeavours to provide food to hungry people worldwide.
White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby informed reporters that the US has taken note of the statements from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli defence forces regarding their pledge to carry out an investigation.
“As we understand it, a preliminary investigation has been completed today and presented to the army chief of staff, and we'll obviously look to see what they discover in this preliminary one, but we expect the broader investigation to be conducted and to be done so in a swift and comprehensive manner,” he said.
“We hope that those findings will be made public and that there is appropriate accountability held, but more than 200 aid workers have been killed in this conflict, making it one of the worst for aid workers in recent history. This incident is emblematic of a larger problem and evidence of why distribution of aid in Gaza has been so challenging,” Kirby said.
Announcing the results of a preliminary investigation early Wednesday, Israel's military chief, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, expressed remorse over the killings and called the event a “grave mistake”.
Follow us
