US President Joe Biden has unusually harshly criticized Monday’s Israeli attack on a convoy delivering food in the Gaza Strip, news agencies reported. He said he was “outraged and devastated” and called on Israel to quickly claim responsibility for the attack and better protect aid workers in the future. Israel’s army chief admitted shortly before that the army made a serious mistake that led to the killing of seven aid workers.
Biden was among Western politicians who condemned the Israeli army for killing workers of the World Central Kitchen (WCK) charity. According to the AP agency, he chose a sharper tone than in his previous critical words towards Israel, for which Washington is a key ally.
“What’s even more tragic is that this is not an isolated incident. This conflict is the worst in recent history in terms of aid workers killed,” he said in a statement.
Israeli Army Chief of Staff Herci Halevi said not long before Biden’s criticism that the tragic mistake was the result of misidentifying the target in difficult night conditions.
“It was a mistake that followed a misidentification – at night, during the war, in very difficult circumstances. It shouldn’t have happened,” Halevi said without elaborating.
The attack on the convoy killed citizens of Australia, Britain and Poland, as well as Palestinians and a person with citizenship of the United States and Canada. According to WCK, the convoy was hit as it was leaving a warehouse in Deir Balah, where it had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid delivered to the Gaza Strip by sea.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strike was tragic and unintentional, and the Israeli military promised an independent investigation into the circumstances.
Read more about the convoy attack here:
Tags: Biden sharply criticized intervention convoy Gaza Israel admitted mistake
