BODIES OF SLAIN FOREIGN AID WORKERS TAKEN OUT OF GAZA
Remains of six international staff handed to country reps in Egypt
THE bodies of six foreign aid workers killed in an Israeli strike were on Wednesday taken out of Gaza to Egypt for repatriation, a security source said.
The Israeli military killed seven staff of the United States-based food charity World Central Kitchen on Monday in an attack that United Nations chief Antonio Guterres labelled “unconscionable” and “an inevitable result of the way the war is being conducted”.
The remains of the six international staff, who were killed alongside one Palestinian colleague, were taken in ambulances to the Rafah crossing to Egypt, where they were handed over to representatives of their respective countries, the security source said on condition of anonymity.
Israel’s armed forces chief Herzi Halevi called the attack a “grave mistake”, which he blamed on night-time “misidentification”, adding in a video message that “we are sorry for the unintentional harm to the members of WCK”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged the “tragic case” would be investigated “right to the end”, and President Isaac Herzog expressed his “deep sorrow and sincere apologies”.
The seven deaths piled more pressure on Israel, whose war since the Hamas attack of Oct 7 has brought devastation and mass civilian casualties to Gaza, where the UN warns the population of 2.4 million is on the brink of famine.
The charity said it was mourning the loss of its seven “heroes” and “beautiful souls”.
It said they had been killed in a “targeted attack” that was launched despite the group having coordinated its movements with Israeli forces.
It named those killed as Palestinian Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha, 25; Australian Lalzawmi “Zomi” Frankcom, 43; Britons John Chapman, 57, James “Jim” Henderson, 33, and James Kirby, 47; Pole Damian Sobol, 35; and, US-Canadian Jacob Flickinger, 33.
After their deaths, the charity suspended operations and a ship that had carried food aid from Cyprus to Gaza turned back towards the Mediterranean island with around 240 tonnes of supplies that had not been unloaded.
Human Rights Watch said the attack “displays the characteristics of a precision airstrike”, adding that it gave greater urgency to an International Criminal Court investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes in the Palestinian territories.
The bloodiest-ever Gaza war erupted with Hamas’ Oct 7 attack, which resulted in about 1,170 deaths of Israelis and foreigners, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign had killed at least 32,975 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
Palestinian militants took more than 250 hostages on Oct 7 and presently 130 remained in Gaza, including 34 who the army said were dead.
Talks for a ceasefire and hostage release deal had stalled, with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh accusing Israel of procrastinating.
Qatar, which is mediating the indirect talks, said Israel had objected to the demand to allow displaced Gazans to return to their homes.
On Wednesday, the army said its forces had “killed and apprehended a number of terrorists” in fighting near the Al-Amal Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis.
It followed a two-week operation around Gaza’s biggest hospital, Al-Shifa, which destroyed much of the medical complex and left scores dead.
The UN Human Rights Council will today consider a draft resolution calling for an arms embargo on Israel, citing the “plausible risk of genocide in Gaza”.
The draft “condemns the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects by Israel in populated areas in Gaza” and of “the use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare.”
There are 47 countries serving on the Human Rights Council — among them 18 states which brought forward the draft resolution.
Twenty-four votes are needed for an outright majority, or possibly fewer if there are abstentions.
Israel has long accused the Human Rights Council of being biased against it.
In London, three former Supreme Court justices have joined more than 600 members of the British legal profession in calling for the government to halt arms sales to Israel, saying it could make Britain complicit in genocide in Gaza.
Echoing the growing number of opposition politicians who have called for a halt to British arms sales, the three justices joined other barristers, former judges and legal academics in urging Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to change policy.
“The provision of military assistance and material to Israel may render the UK complicit in genocide as well as serious
breaches of International Humanitarian Law,” the judges and barristers said in a 17-page letter.
“Customary international law recognises the concept of ‘aiding and assisting’ an international wrongful act.”
One of the former justices, Jonathan Sumption, told BBC Radio he was concerned the British government had lost sight of its need to prevent genocide.
Britain sells explosive devices, assault rifles and military aircraft to Israel but it is a relatively small supplier, with Israeli exports making up about 0.4 per cent of Britain’s total global defence sales in 2022, the last full-year data was available.
The lawyers cited the fact that the International Court of Justice had in January ordered Israel to refrain from any acts that could fall under the Genocide Convention, plus the growing fears about famine.