Israel’s strike that killed seven aid mission workers in the Gaza Strip on Monday was a “grave mistake,” Israel Defense Forces chief Herzi Halevi admitted Wednesday.
“This incident was a grave mistake,” Halevi said in a video statement about the strike, which killed six foreign workers of the World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid organization and their Palestinian driver.
“This should not have happened,” Halevi said, blaming the strike on “misidentification” that took place “at night during the war in very difficult circumstances.”
“We apologize for the unintentional harm to WCK members,” Halevi said.
WCK said the strike hit its convoy as it left a depot in the town of Deiralbalach. The seven killed include citizens of Australia, Poland and Britain, as well as a dual citizen of the United States and Canada.
The WCK workers killed in the strike had shortly before unloaded “more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid that was brought to Gaza via the sea route,” the organization said in a statement.
WCK, which is headquartered in the US, said it was temporarily “suspending operations in the region” following the strike.
The attack drew strong international condemnation.
US President Joe Biden said Israel “has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed aid to civilians”.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres called the strike “excessive” and said it underscored the need for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and the militant group Hamas.
Britain summoned Israel’s ambassador to London to express its “unequivocal condemnation” of the attack and to demand “full responsibility”. Three of those killed were British citizens.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he was “outraged by the killing of aid workers”.
In a phone call with Netanyahu, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed his “anger and concern” over the death of Australian citizen Zomia Francom in the strike.
Poland demanded compensation for the families of the aid workers killed. One of the killed is a Polish citizen.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the Israeli army had “unintentionally” killed the aid workers and called it a “tragic incident” that would be investigated “to the end”. Netanyahu, however, did not apologize for these deaths.
