Attack on humanitarian workers puts Tel Aviv under siege by the international community

The attack on WCK vehicles distributing food in the Gaza Strip may have been the final straw in the relationship between old allies such as the United States and Israel. In recent weeks, Washington had put its foot to the wall with Tel Aviv’s determination to launch a ground offensive in Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were pushed and left with no escape in the event of Israeli troops entering the region. The warning then came from the vice president herself, Kamala Harris, who put all the possibilities on the table in case the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) intervened in the city.

Faced with the chorus of criticism that arrived from the international community following the news of the death of the seven humanitarian workers, the Israeli president was quick to apologize for what had happened.: “President Herzog expressed his deep sadness and sincere apologies for the tragic death of the WCK members last night in the Gaza Strip and sent condolences to their families and loved ones,” he said in a statement.

To these excuses was added the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who admitted on Tuesday that it was an unintentional action that will be the subject of in-depth investigation. Netanyahu did not fail to mention, however, that “these are things that happen in war”, as can be seen on his X social network account.

“Unfortunately, on the last day there was a tragic event in which our forces unintentionally targeted non-combatants in the Gaza Strip. These are things that happen in war (…). We will do everything we can to prevent it from happening again.”wrote the prime minister.

However, these are justifications that do not silence the revolt of important interlocutors that Israel still maintains in the international community. The United States, through White House spokesman John Kirby, says it is “outraged”: “We were outraged to learn of the IDF attack that killed several World Central Kitchen aid workers.”

From Berlin also came a request for Israel to clarify the events. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock urged Tel Aviv to “carry out a rapid and exhaustive investigation”.

“Humanitarian workers must be able to do their important work in complete safety around the world, and also in Gaza (…). Incidents like this cannot happen,” wrote Annalena Baerbock in X.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom, which had three Britons in the team affected by the Israeli bombing, has already summoned the Israeli ambassador in London to express “unequivocal condemnation” for the death of the seven humanitarian workers.

And the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, who had previously been on a collision course with the orientation followed by Tel Aviv in the Gaza Strip, considered that the Israeli explanations were insufficient and unacceptable.

During a joint press conference during the visit to Qatar, Sánchez considered that the explanation put forward by Netanyahu for the tragic events involving the WCK “is unacceptable and insufficient and we await a more consistent and detailed clarification, after which we will see what action to take ”.

In Monday’s attack, seven WCK members with citizenship from Australia, Poland and the United Kingdom, a citizen with dual US and Canadian citizenship and three Palestinians were killed.according to the NGO founded by Spanish chef and television celebrity José Andrés.

WCK marked their death at X by calling them “heroes”: Saifeddine Issam Ayad Aboutaha, 25 years old, Palestinian; Lalzawmi (Zomi) Frankcom, 43 years old, Australian; Damian Sobol, 35 years old, Polish, Jacob Flickinger, 33 years old, American-Canadian; and John Chapman, aged 57, James (Jim) Henderson, aged 33 and James Kirby, aged 47, British.

The existence of a Polish citizen among the victims of the Israeli attack has already opened an incident between Poland and Israel, with Yacov Livne, Israeli ambassador in Warsaw accusing Poles of anti-Semitism.

Using the social network X, Yacov Livne made it known that the extreme right and left in Poland were accusing Israel of intentional murder. He later added: “Anti-Semites will always be anti-Semites.”

“Israel has repeatedly expressed deep sorrow, sadness and condolences over the tragic death of the World Central Kitchen workers, including Damian Sobol, a Polish citizen. It is regrettable that far-right and far-left people in Poland use this human tragedy to attack Israela country that fights against Hamas’ jihadist terrorism to defend our civilization and our common values,” added Ambassador Livne in a statement sent to Reuters.

In a response on the social network of Hamas (…). Now you are putting that solidarity to a very difficult test. The tragic attack on volunteers and his (Netanyahu’s) reaction provoked understandable anger.”

Diplomatic diatribes aside, prosecutors in Przemysl, where Damian Sobol lived in Poland, have already announced the opening of their own investigation into the death of the Polish citizen.

The circumstances of the accident, with the armored vehicles being destroyed by Israeli artillery, still raise many doubts even among Israel’s natural allies and Rishi Sunak, British Prime Minister, reiterated international calls for a full and transparent investigation.

Sunak reportedly made the request personally to Netanyahu in a telephone conversation that took place this Tuesday: “He (Sunak) said he was shocked by the deaths of aid workers, including three British citizens, in the Gaza airstrike and demanded a full and transparent investigation into what happened,” said a Downing Street spokesperson. “The prime minister said that too many aid workers and civilians have lost their lives in Gaza and that the situation is increasingly intolerable.”

The deaths of the WCK group are known, The United Nations also came to regret the events of Mondayconsidering them as “an inevitable result of the way this war is being conducted”.

An immediate consequence of this new tragedy in the Gaza Strip is the worsening of subsistence conditions in the Palestinian territory with the return to Cyprus of a ship that was near the coast of Gaza with around 240 tons of food intended for the Palestinian population.