The American relief organization World Central Kitchen announced on Tuesday that seven of its employees were killed in an Israeli strike on the Gaza Strip.
The Washington-based non-governmental organization said in a statement: “Seven members of our team were killed in a strike carried out by Israel in Gaza,” explaining that the deceased was “from Australia, Poland, and the United Kingdom,” and one of them “holds American, Canadian, and Palestinian nationalities.”
The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) condemned the Israeli occupation’s targeting of workers for an international relief organization who were travelling in a vehicle in the south of the city of Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on Tuesday night, which led to the death of its five passengers, including foreigners.
The US, Canada, Australia, Poland, and the UK condemned the Israeli attack on the relief workers.
The Hamas movement said in a statement: “This crime once again confirms that the occupation still insists on its policy of systematic killing against defenceless civilians and international relief teams and humanitarian organizations, as part of its efforts to terrorize its workers, to prevent them from continuing their humanitarian missions.”
On Monday, the White House expressed its deep sadness over the killing of several foreign volunteers for the World Central Kitchen relief organization in an Israeli raid in the Gaza Strip, calling on the Hebrew state to quickly investigate to uncover the circumstances of what happened.
“We are heartbroken and deeply disturbed by the raid that led to the deaths of aid workers at World Central Kitchen in Gaza,” Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the US National Security Council, wrote on the X platform.
She added: “Humanitarian relief workers must be protected because they provide aid that (the Palestinians) desperately need, and we urge Israel to quickly investigate what happened.”
In another context, a statement issued by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office on behalf of the Mossad stated that the negotiating delegation, which includes representatives of the Mossad, the Shin Bet, and the Israeli Defense Forces, will return this afternoon from Cairo after another round of intensive talks.
It pointed out that “within the framework of these talks, which were conducted with effective Egyptian mediation, the mediators crystallized an updated proposal that will be presented to Hamas.”
“Israel expects the mediators to intensify their work toward Hamas to advance negotiations on a deal,” according to the statement, noting that the occupying state “continues to make all required efforts to free the kidnapped men and women from the grip of Hamas and return them to Israel.”
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced that the Israeli occupation army committed 7 massacres against civilians in the Gaza Strip, of which 71 deaths and 102 injuries reached hospitals during the past 24 hours, which raises the toll of the Israeli aggression on the Strip to 32,916 deaths and 75,494 injuries since 7 October.
