The United States has said it has received and will be making a review of Israel’s report over the terrible killing of the World Central Kitchen team in Gaza.
Secretary of States, Antony Blinken who made this disclosure in his remark to the Press on Friday added that there will be a conclusions with Israeli officials with humanitarian organizations in the days to come.
On April 1, 2024, the Israel Defense Forces killed seven aid workers employed by World Central Kitchen (WCK), an internationally recognized humanitarian organization. These slain workers were nationals of Australia, Canada, United States (dual citizen), Gaza, Poland, and the United Kingdom.
This was a military attack involved multiple strikes targeted the three WCK vehicles. All three vehicles were carrying civilians; were marked as WCK; and their movements were in full compliance with Israeli authorities, who were aware of their itinerary, route, and humanitarian mission, according to report.
The Secretary said, “It’s very important that Israel is taking full responsibility for this incident and also important that it appears to be taking steps to hold those responsible accountable. Even more important is making sure that steps are taken going forward to ensure that something like this can never happen again”.
He revealed that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu indicated to United States President, Biden that Israel would be making further changes to its procedures to make sure that those who are providing assistance to people who so desperately need it in Gaza are protected.
Blinken stated that the United States is going to be looking very carefully at what the steps are, and how it achieves better deconfliction, better coordination, so that aid workers are protected, saying “at the same time, as Israel pursues any military operations against Hamas, it has to prioritize the protection of civilians”.
He noted that Israel has to make that job number one. “Too many people have been caught in this crossfire of Hamas’ making – children, women, men losing their lives. Their safety has to be prioritized, and Israel military operations need to be designed around their protection, not the other way around.
“So we’ll be looking at all of this in the days to come. And we’ll be, as I said, assessing fully the report on the World Central Kitchen incident, and we’re looking to see not just what steps are being taken but the results that follow from them”, the Secretary said.
The Israeli airstrikes that caused the lost of World Central Kitchen WCK personnel on April 1st bring the number of aid workers killed in Gaza’s conflict to 196, including over 175 members of United Nations staff, the World Body Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres revealed this in his reaction.
