Israel faces all-round flak over aid workers’ deaths; one was of Indian descent

One of the six international aid workers with the World Central Kitchen, killed in an Israeli airstrike in the war-torn Gaza along with the Palestinian driver, was of Indian descent, according to reports.

Zomi Frankcom, born to an Australian father and a Mizo mother, was on a mission to provide relief to the people of war-torn northern Gaza when the convoy she was travelling in came under fire late Monday (April 1), media reports said.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed that 43-year-old Frankcom was among those killed and demanded full accountability from the Israeli Government.

"This is someone who was volunteering overseas to provide aid through this charity for people who are suffering tremendous deprivation in Gaza. And this is just completely unacceptable,” he said.

“We want full accountability for this because this is a tragedy that should never have occurred."

PM Netanyahu acknowledges tragic incident

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged that Israeli forces carried out the strike that killed seven aid workers in Gaza.

“Unfortunately, over the last day there was a tragic incident of an unintended strike of our forces on innocent people in the Gaza Strip,” he said in a statement on Tuesday (April 2).

He said that officials "will do everything for this not to happen again”.

Food charity suspends operations in Gaza

The food charity, founded by celebrity chef Jose Andres, said it was immediately suspending operations in the region.

"Despite coordinating movements with the IDF, the convoy was hit as it was leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse, where the team had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route," it said.

José Andrés said he was “heartbroken” by the deaths of the staffers.

“The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing. It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon,” he wrote on X.

"This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organisations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war. This is unforgiveable,” said WCK CEO Erin Gore.

Condemnation from Israel’s closest allies

Some of Israel's closest allies, including the United States, on Tuesday (April 2) condemned the deaths of seven aid workers - a loss that prompted multiple charities to suspend food deliveries to Palestinians on the brink of starvation.

The dead from Monday night's strikes included three British citizens, Polish and Australia nationals, a Canadian-American dual national and a Palestinian.

The US, Britain, Poland, Australia, and Canada all called on Israel to give answers on the deaths.

Anger among its allies could put new pressure on Israel.

The British government summoned Israel's ambassador for a rebuke and called for an immediate humanitarian pause to allow more aid in and the release of hostages.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told Netanyahu that he was “appalled” by the workers' deaths and described the situation in Gaza as “increasingly intolerable.”

A senior Canadian government official said there will be a joint formal diplomatic rebuke at the foreign ministry in Israel on Wednesday (April 3).

Outraged and heartbroken: President Biden

President Joe Biden issued an unusually blunt criticism of Israel by its closest ally, suggesting that the incident demonstrated that Israel was not doing enough to protect civilians.

“Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately-needed help to civilians,” he said, adding he was “outraged and heartbroken" by their killings.

“Incidents like yesterday's simply should not happen,” he added. "The United States has repeatedly urged Israel to deconflict their military operations against Hamas with humanitarian operations, in order to avoid civilian casualties.”

“They were providing food to hungry civilians in the middle of a war. They were brave and selfless. Their deaths are a tragedy. Israel has pledged to conduct a thorough investigation into why the aid workers’ vehicles were hit by airstrikes. That investigation must be swift, it must bring accountability, and its findings must be made public,” he said.

“Even more tragically, this is not a stand-alone incident. This conflict has been one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have been killed. This is a major reason why distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza has been so difficult – because Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians,” Biden said.

Biden said the US will continue to do all "we can to deliver humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians in Gaza, through all available means. I will continue to press Israel to do more to facilitate that aid. And we are pushing hard for an immediate ceasefire as part of a hostage deal. I have a team in Cairo working on this right now”.

Earlier in the day, Biden spoke with Chef José Andrés, the founder of World Central Kitchen, to convey his deepest condolences for the deaths of these courageous aid workers and to express his continued support for his and his team’s relentless and heroic efforts to get food to hungry people around the globe.

Preliminary investigation by Israel

Israel's military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, announced the results of a preliminary investigation early Wednesday (April 3).

“It was a mistake that followed a misidentification – at night during a war in very complex conditions. It shouldn't have happened,” he said.

He gave no further details. He said an independent body would conduct a “thorough investigation” that would be completed in the coming days.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant launched an investigation and ordered the opening of a joint situation room enabling coordination between the military and aid groups.

World Central Kitchen said it had coordinated with the Israeli military over the movement of its cars. Three vehicles moving at large distances apart were hit in succession. They were left incinerated and mangled, indicating multiple targeted strikes.

At least one of the vehicles had the charity's logo printed across its roof to make it identifiable from the air, and the ordnance punched a large hole through the roof. Footage showed the bodies at a hospital in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah, several of them wearing protective gear with the charity's logo.

Israeli TV said the initial military investigation found that the army identified the cars carrying World Central Kitchen's workers arriving at its warehouse in Deir al-Balah and observed suspected militants nearby. Half an hour later, the vehicles were struck by the air force as they headed south. The reports said it was not clear who ordered the strikes or why.

Deaths send chill through aid agencies

The deaths sent a further chill through UN agencies and other aid groups that have said for months that sending truck convoys around Gaza - particularly in the north - has been extremely difficult because of the military's failure to either grant permission or ensure safe passage. Israel has barred UNRWA, the main UN agency in Gaza, from making deliveries to the north.

The US and other countries have been working to set up the sea passage from Cyprus to get around the difficulties.

World Central Kitchen was key to the new route. It and the United Arab Emirates sent a pilot shipment last month. Their second delivery of around 400 tonnes of food and supplies arrived in three ships to Gaza hours before the strikes on the convoy.

Around 100 tonnes were unloaded before the charity suspended operations, and the rest was being taken back to Cyprus, Cypriot Foreign Ministry spokesman Theodoros Gotsis said.

Still, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said on Tuesday (April 20 that ship deliveries would continue.

Anera, a Washington-based aid group that has been operating in the Palestinian territories for decades, said that in the wake of the strikes it was taking the “unprecedented” step of pausing its own operations in Gaza, where it had been helping to provide around 150,000 meals daily.

“The escalating risks associated with aid delivery leave us with no choice,” it said in a statement.

More than 180 aid workers killed in the war

Jamie McGoldrick, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said the strikes were “not an isolated incident”. The UN says more than 180 humanitarian workers have been killed in the war.

“This is nearly three times the death toll recorded in any single conflict in a year,” he said.

(With agency inputs)