Trudeau condemns Netanyahu's comments on strike that killed Canadian, 6 other aid workers
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pushed back Thursday on comments made by Israeli Prime Min‐ ister Benjamin Netanyahu about an Israeli military airstrike that killed seven aid workers in Gaza, includ‐ ing one Canadian.
In a video statement re‐ leased earlier this week, Ne‐ tanyahu expressed regret over the incident and called it a "tragic case of our forces unintentionally hitting inno‐ cent people in the Gaza Strip." He also said "this hap‐ pens in wartime" and that Is‐ rael was looking into the situ‐ ation.
"No, it doesn't just happen," Trudeau said Thurs‐ day during an event in Win‐ nipeg. "And it shouldn't just happen when you have aid workers for an extraordinary organization like World Cen‐ tral Kitchen risking their lives every day in an incredibly dangerous place to deliver food to people who are expe‐ riencing a horrific humani‐ tarian catastrophe."
Jacob Flickinger, a 33year-old Canadian veteran, was killed by the Israeli airstrike, along with six other aid workers. The incident has triggered widespread inter‐ national condemnation. U.S.
President Joe Biden said he was "outraged and heart‐ broken" by the incident.
WATCH | Trudeau dis‐ cusses Israeli airstrike that killed Canadian
In a letter released earlier this week, World Central Kitchen's chief José Andrés called on Israelis to push their government to change the way it's conducting its war against Hamas. He said his group had coordinated its aid deliveries with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
The IDF said the strike was a "grave mistake."
"I want to be very clear the strike was not carried out with the intention of harming WCK aid workers. It was a mistake that followed a misidentification, at night, during a war in very complex conditions. It shouldn't have happened," Herzi Halevi, the IDF chief of staff, said Wednesday.
More than 196 humani‐ tarian workers, many of them Palestinians working for UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency), have been killed since the war's start in October, ac‐ cording to Aid Worker Secu‐ rity Database, a U.S.-funded group recording major inci‐ dents of violence against aid personnel.
Months of war have fol‐ lowed an attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 that killed over 1,100 people in Israel, with about 250 more taken hostage. Since then, 32,975 people have been killed in Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry there said this week.
Trudeau has demanded an investigation of the airstrike. World Central Kitchen has asked for a third party investigation - one not run by Israel itself.
Trudeau did not say Thursday whether he would support a third-party investi‐ gation.
WATCH | Parents of Canadian killed in Gaza talk about airstrike
"We need a fully open, transparent, independent and rapid investigation into what happened," he said.
"The reality is we need much more humanitarian support to flow into Gaza, much more protection of civilians, of innocents and of aid workers.
"That's why we need a hu‐ manitarian ceasefire. We need for Hamas to lay down its arms. We need for the hostages to be released, and we need a ceasefire to allow this humanitarian cata‐ strophe to end as quickly as possible."