Israel admits ‘serious failures’ over deadly strike on WCK aid workers in Gaza: Live

Pro-Palestinian protesters take part at a demonstration on Al Quds Day in London.

There, since January, families have been surviving on an average of 245 calories a day, according to Oxfam – less than 12 percent of the average recommended daily calorie needs.

Israel must follow up its report into how three British aid workers were killed with “a wholly independent review to ensure the utmost transparency”, Lord David Cameron has said.

The UK will carefully review the findings of the initial Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) report into the incident released on Friday, the Foreign Secretary added.

Three Britons were among the World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers who died in air strikes by the IDF on Monday – John Chapman, 57, James “Jim” Henderson, 33, and James Kirby, 47.

The Israeli forces dismissed two officers over the strikes, which it described as a “grave mistake stemming from a serious failure”.

Three other senior officers were also reprimanded for their roles in the strike, which took place in Gaza.

The attack on the WCK aid convoy has resulted in rebukes from Israel‘s allies, while MPs from across the political spectrum have questioned whether the UK should continue exporting arms to the Middle Eastern country.

Israel‘s decision to open up some new corridors for humanitarian aid in Gaza will still not be enough to prevent starvation in Gaza, said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Friday.

“Following widespread condemnation of the killing of 7 @WCKitchen staffers by IDF and mounting international pressure, the Israeli gov will open some corridors for humanitarian aid. It’s not enough to prevent starvation in #Gaza,” wrote Borrell on X.

“The binding UN Security Council Resolution 2728 must be implemented. Now.” he added.

The U.N.’s top human rights body called on countries to stop selling or shipping weapons to Israel in a resolution passed Friday that aims to help prevent rights violations against Palestinians amid Israel’s blistering military campaign in Gaza.

The 47-member-country Human Rights Council voted 28-6 in favor of the resolution, with 13 abstentions.

The sweeping measure takes aim at an array of Israeli actions such as impeding access to water and limiting shipments of humanitarian aid into Palestinian areas. It also calls on U.N.-backed independent investigators to report on shipments of weapons, munitions and “dual use” items — that have both civilian and military applications — that could be used by Israel against Palestinians.

The humanitarian group, which delivers food aid to war and disaster zones, said the seven were returning from coordinating an aid shipment in central Gaza when their three-car convoy was struck and they were killed.

Editorial: To dissuade Benjamin Netanyahu from his current deadly course in Gaza, and possibly beyond, it falls to Joe Biden to make America’s diplomatic, financial and military support firmly conditional. Depriving the US ally of its weapons of war – and adding to its international isolation – is becoming, sadly, inevitable:

In all likelihood, Joe Biden, a compassionate and emotional man, doesn’t need Flotus to tell him what needs to be done. He has struggled with the painful dilemmas the present crisis has created for many months. He was as shocked as anyone at the atrocities committed by Hamas on 7 October.

Instinctively, the president stood by Israel. So did the world. But the president has also clearly been increasingly troubled by the conduct of the war. He has grown more outspoken about the casualties and breaches of international law. He has lifted the US veto at the UN and called for a ceasefire.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that he sincerely hopes Israel quickly and effectively boosts aid access to the Gaza Strip, describing the situation in the Palestinian enclave after six months of war as “absolutely desperate.”

“When the gates to aid are closed, the doors to starvation are opened. More than half the population – over a million people – are facing catastrophic hunger. Children in Gaza today are dying for lack of food and water,” Guterres told reporters.

“This is incomprehensible, and entirely avoidable,” he said. “Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”

“The Israeli government has acknowledged mistakes,” Guterres said. “But the essential problem is not who made the mistakes, it is the military strategy and procedures in place that allow for those mistakes to multiply time and time again.”

“Fixing those failures requires independent investigations and meaningful and measurable changes on the ground,” he said. “196 humanitarian workers have been killed and we want to know why each one of them was killed.”

Guterres also said he was “deeply troubled” by reports that the Israeli military has been using artificial intelligence to help identify bombing targets in Gaza. The Israeli military denies AI was used to identify suspected extremists and targets.

“No part of life and death decisions which impact entire families should be delegated to the cold calculation of algorithms,” Guterres said.

Palestinian Redwan Abu Alkas lost his daughter in an Israeli airstrike. His home was destroyed and the family’s dream of opening its own business, a pizzeria in the once bustling Gaza Strip, was shattered.

The family had saved up the money and bought all the equipment. That was before the Israeli bombardment of one of the most densely populated areas in the world began in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militants who rule Gaza.

“In this war, I lost my daughter, first of all. I used to have money to start a good project. I had gained enough experience from working in restaurants in Gaza Strip – I worked in most of the restaurants in Gaza – and now there is nothing,” Redwan told Reuters at a U.N.-run school being used as a shelter for displaced Palestinians.

“…I had a brother who was going to be my partner, he is now wounded. He might get better, he might not. All the money that I had for the project is gone because of price rises.”

Redwan’s brother, Hamza, is confined to a wheelchair. He was wounded while trying to secure food aid.

“I stopped going out and seeing people. I’m sitting in a wheelchair and in bed, being treated and sometimes circumstances prevent me from getting to the hospital to get treatment because of the occupation,” he said.

The US has made it clear it no longer trusts Israel’s actions in Gaza, writes Nomi Bar-Yaacov. The only way to get humanitarian aid safely in is with an immediate ceasefire, and an end to the war:

Now is the time to end it with a comprehensive ceasefire agreement, the release of all the hostages, a return of the displaced Gazan population to their towns and villages, and the opening of a land crossing to allow unhindered flow of humanitarian aid.

Plans for the rehabilitation of Gaza coupled with a carefully mapped out plan for Palestinian statehood and Israeli normalisation with Arab states must follow suit.