Joe Biden said Israel is not doing enough to protect aid workers and called for a swift investigation into the Israel Defense Forces drone strike in Gaza that killed seven people working for the World Central Kitchen charity. “This conflict has been one of the worst in recent times in terms of the number of aid workers killed,” the US president said, in comments highly critical of Israel's actions in Gaza.
The attack on the WCK convoy killed Australian, British and Polish citizens, as well as Palestinians and a dual citizen of the United States and Canada. Early this morning, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi attributed the attack to a “misidentification”, adding that “the raid was not carried out with the intention of harming WCK aid workers” and that it was a mistake that should not have happened.
Biden said he was “outraged and heartbroken” by the deaths of the aid workers and stressed that this was not an isolated incident. “This is one of the main reasons why the distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza has been so difficult – because Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed aid to civilians… Israel has not done enough to protect civilians.”
More than 200 aid workers have been killed in Gaza since the war between Israel and Hamas began after the militant group's attack on Israeli communities on October 7, Jamie McGoldrick, the top UN coordination official, said yesterday of humanitarian aid in Gaza. The attack on the WCK was not an “isolated incident”, he added, stressing that the number of aid workers killed in the last six months in Gaza was almost three times higher than the death toll recorded in any other conflict in a year .
4 Israeli policemen hit by suspected terrorist
Police said they had opened an investigation into a suspected terrorist attack this morning near Kokhav Ya'ir, in central Israel, where four policemen were hit. It was also reported that the terrorist attempted to stab security personnel at Checkpoint 109 and was neutralized. One of the police officers was seriously injured, another officer was moderately injured and two others were slightly injured.
Raid on homes, IDF arrests three Palestinians in the West Bank
Israeli military raids are ongoing across the West Bank with reports of arrests in the towns of Qalqilya and Hizma, located northeast of occupied East Jerusalem. Wafa news agency reports that a young Palestinian, identified as Rami Al-Aqraa, was arrested in Qalqilya following a raid on his home and two men were arrested in the town of Hizma.
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