Israel’s killing of aid workers was ‘intentional’
Airstrikes bear hallmarks of a precision strike, fact-checking watchdog Bellingcat said in a new report
Istanbul, Turkey - Israeli airstrikes in Gaza that killed seven aid workers from a Us-based food charity ‘bear the hallmarks of a precision strike’, fact-checking watchdog Bellingcat said in a new report on Tuesday.
Bellingcat’s report hits back at an earlier statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who claimed that the Monday attack that killed seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers was ‘a tragic case of our forces unintentionally hitting innocent people in the Gaza Strip’.
“The destroyed vehicles bear the hallmarks of a precision strike, which only the IDF (Israeli army) has the capability to conduct in the region,” former UK military officer Nick Waters, a Bellingcat open-source analyst, said in the report.
“Images from the aftermath of the strike show that the WCK vehicles were white and at least one had the WCK logo and name clearly marked on the roof,” Waters said.
Through the use of opensource intelligence and by geolocating the vehicles hit by Israel, Bellingcat determined that the Israeli strike was intentional, the group said.
“Bellingcat geolocated the vehicles to the outskirts of Deir alBalah (central Gaza) when they were struck - not far from where WCK facilities are based in Deir al-balah,” the report said.
The document also provides details on the three aid vehicles targeted by Israel.
“Images of the aftermath depict three cars which were de
stroyed by the strike, consistent with the WCK statement that the convoy included two armoured cars and a soft skin vehicle,” Waters said in the report, adding that the second vehicle, which was ‘more heavily damaged and suffered fire damage’, could be identified from about 800 metres (about 2,625 feet) away.
Providing geolocation data for all three cars, the report added that the last aid vehicle hit by Israel was identified approximately 1.6km (about 1 mile) to the south
west of the first vehicle.
After the release of Bellingcat’s report, Israeli daily Haaretz published a story, based on Israeli army sources familiar with the matter, also confirming that the attack had been intentional, not the ‘tragic’ accident claimed by Netanyahu.
Haaretz also noted that the aid vehicles ‘were clearly marked on the roof and sides as belonging to the (aid) organisation’ and were traveling along ‘a route preapproved and coordinated with’ the
Israeli army.
Despite that, it added, ‘the war room of the unit responsible for security of the route ordered the drone operators to attack one of the cars with a missile’, not once, not twice, but three times hitting the vehicles, and killing all seven volunteer aid workers.
Biden ‘outraged’
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he is ‘outraged’ and ‘heartbroken’ over the Israeli airstrike in Gaza that killed seven people working for WCK, highlighting that Israel ‘has not done enough to protect aid workers’.
“They were providing food to hungry civilians in the middle of a war. They were brave and selfless. Their deaths are a tragedy,” Biden said in a statement.
Noting that Israel has pledged to conduct a thorough investigation into the killings, he said ‘that investigation must be swift, it must bring accountability, and its findings must be made public’.
Biden said the war in Gaza has been 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,” he said, adding that incidents like this should not happen. “Israel has also not done enough to protect civilians. The United States has repeatedly urged Israel to deconflict their military operations against Hamas with humanitarian operations in order to avoid civilian casualties,” he added.
Biden said the US will continue to do all it can to deliver humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians in Gaza and 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,” he added.
According to the UN, 196 aid workers including more than 175 UN staff members have been killed since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7 last year.
The WCK earlier confirmed that seven of its humanitarian aid workers were killed in Monday’s ‘unforgivable’ Israeli strikes.
Despite coordinating its movements with the Israeli military, the charity said the convoy was hit as it was leaving a warehouse in the southern city of Deir al-balah after the team unloaded more than 100 tonnes of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on a maritime route.
Images from the aftermath of the strike show that the WCK vehicles were white and at least one had the WCK logo and name clearly marked on the roof
NICK WATERS