Israel admits ‘serious failures’ over deadly strike but insists aid workers were mistaken for Hamas: Updates
Biden and Netanyahu spoke on Thursday for first time since deaths of aid workers as pressure mounts on Sunak to withdraw arms sales
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Israel has admitted that “serious failures” were made by its forces after seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers were killed in an airstrike in Gaza.
The IDF announced on Friday that its internal investigation into the incident had concluded.
While admitting that a “grave mistake” was made, the IDF continued to claim innocence over the attack – insisting that the WCK workers were “misidentified” as Hamas militants. Two military officers have been dismissed from their positions following the findings, the IDF said.
More than 220 humanitarian workers have been killed in the conflict, according to the UN. Scott Paul of Oxfam said on Thursday: “The killing of aid workers in Gaza has been systemic.”
The announcement comes hours after Israel agreed to reopen two border crossings into Gaza to increase the flow of humanitarian aid, after President Joe Biden warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a call that future US support for Israel would be determined by its efforts to protect civilians and aid workers.
Meanwhile, former UK foreign secretary Alan Duncan is being investigated by Tory chiefs after he said pro-Israel “extremists” in the party should be kicked out over their refusal to support international law.
Jacob Flickinger’s parents don’t believe IDF strike on aid workers was accident
The parents of Jacob Flickinger, one of seven aid workers killed this week in an Israeli airstrike, don’t believe the incident in Gaza was an accident.
“They were aware, the entire world was aware, this food shipment was coming in,” John Flickinger told CBS News on Thursday. “It’s been international news for days. They were aware the food was picked up at the ship on the coast of Gaza and delivered to a warehouse along an approved humanitarian route approved by Israel. Soon after they dropped the food off, we know they were targeted. The convoy was clearly marked. The vehicles were clearly marked. The facts on the ground seemed to indicate it wasn’t a ‘tragic accident.’”
Survivors of Al-Shifa siege recount horrifying experiences
Earlier this week, Israel withdrew from Gaza’s largest hospital after two weeks of “close-quarter” fighting in which it claimed hundreds of militants were killed or arrested.
Civilians who survived the fighting at the Shifa hospital said the violence left them without food and medicine, and caused them deep psychological trauma.
One patient told the World Health Organization, “My psyche has been shattered from within.”
Read more of our reporting on the siege.
Israeli military withdraws from Shifa Hospital amid Netanyahu protests
The Israeli military claimed 200 Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters were killed and up to 900 were arrested
Israel approves reopening of Erez border crossing
Israel’s war cabinet has agreed to reopen the Erez border crossing between Israel and northern Gaza for the first time since the war with Hamas began last year, CNN reports, citing an Israeli official.
The decision was made to allow the reopening to let more humanitarian aid into the besieged strip.
Biden shares photo of call with Netanyahu
Joe Biden on Thursday shared a photo of his recent high-stakes call with Benjamin Netanyahu, the first between the two men since seven World Central Kitchen aid workers were killed this week by an Israeli air strike in Gaza.
Read more on their conversation from Andrew Feinberg and Richard Hall.
Biden warns Netanyahu US support for Gaza war depends on Israel protecting civilians
White House says it wants to see changes by the Israeli government ‘in the coming hours and days’
Mourners in Poland celebrate World Central Kitchen worker killed in IDF strike
Mourners gathered in the Polish city of Przemysl on Thursday to pay tribute to Damian Sobol, 35, a World Central Kitchen humanitarian worker who was killed by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza on Monday in an airstrike.
“There is no consent for killing innocent people, let’s remember this and let’s remember that Damian was helping so that other people would not die of hunger,” Waldemar, a local who works with Ukrainian refugees and previously worked with Sobol, told broadcaster TVN.
“We started here as volunteers. Damian set off further on the volunteering path and unfortunately was murdered by Israeli services.”
Mourners placed candles and flowers in a central plaza on Thursday in honour of Sobol.
Biden and Netanyahu didn’t discuss ‘disaster’ of potential Rafah invasion
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US president Joe Biden reportedly did not discuss the IDF’s hinted-at invasion of Rafah during their call on Thursday.
A US official told Al Jazeera that the US president “refused” to broach the topic.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has said it will be impossible to defeat Hamas without entering the southern Gazan city, where over 1m people are now living, many of whom were told by the IDF to evacuate south at the beginning of the war with Hamas.
US officials, meanwhile, have reportedly warned that an invasion of Rafah would be a “disaster” and argued for alternative options.
Over 600 UK legal experts call on UK to halt arms transfers to Israel
A group of over 600 UK legal experts is calling on the government to suspend weapons transfers to Israel, amid increasing scrunity of the thousands of civilians killed in the IDF’s campaign against Hamas.
“At least 32,623 Palestinians have now been killed and 75,092 injured in Gaza,” the letter reads. “Seventy percent of recorded deaths have consistently been women and children.”
The letter also made mention of the recent strike on World Central Kitchen humanitarian workers.
“Strikes on [United Nations Relief and Works Agency] facilities have led to the deaths of 400 people seeking shelter under the UN flag,” the letter continues. “At least 165 employees of the [UNRWA] workers have been killed. 18 In addition to UNRWA staff, other humanitarian workers and volunteers have been killed.”
Member of Netanyahu’s war cabinet calls for early elections
A member of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet has called for early elections, further ratcheting up the domestic pressure on the wartime leader.
New elections aren’t required until October 2026, but Benny Gantz said earlier elections will stop a “rupture among the people.”
“This agreed-upon date for elections will leave us time to continue the security effort, and it will allow Israeli citizens to know that we will soon need to renew the trust between us,” Mr Gantz said Thursday, The New York Times reports.
Even before the 7 October war, Mr Netanyahu was under intense domestic pressure, facing unprecedented protests in the midst of an attempted judicial reform and a corruption trial.
Trump says Israel ‘losing the PR war’ in Hamas conflict
Donald Trump has joined the chorus of those criticising Israel this week, though from a slightly different angle than most.
Israel’s strike on a convoy of World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza has inspired widespread shock and outrage, but Mr Trump’s issue appears to be more with how the IDF is marketing its campaign to the world.
During a Thursday interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee urged Israel to finish its conflict quickly and said the country was losing world opinion the more “heinous” videos went public of it destroying buildings and harming civilians in Gaza.
“You’ve got to get it over with, and you have to get back to normalcy. And I’m not sure that I’m loving the way they’re doing it, because you’ve got to have victory. You have to have a victory, and it’s taking a long time,” Mr Trump said.
“And the other thing is I hate, they put out tapes all the time,” he continued. “Every night, they’re releasing tapes of a building falling down. They shouldn’t be releasing tapes like that. They’re doing, that’s why they’re losing the PR war. They, Israel is absolutely losing the PR war.”
The whole transcript of the interview can be found here.
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