TEL AVIV: As airstrikes on Hamas targets in Khan Yunis continued, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Wednesday apologized for an attack on an aid convoy, saying the strike resulted from a “misidentification”.
Seven workers from the World Central Kitchen were killed on Monday night when their convoy delivering food was struck in Deir al-Balah. The incident led the US-based organization to suspend its operations in Gaza.
“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”, said IDF Chief of Staff Lt Gen Herzi Halevi in a video statement.
“This incident was a grave mistake. Israel is at war with Hamas, not with the people of Gaza”, Halevi asserted. “We are sorry for the unintentional harm to the members of WCK”, he said. Halevi said the incident would be independently investigated with the findings to be presented “in the coming days.”
WCK’s profile has risen as Israeli authorities have sidelined the UN Relief and Works Agency for distributing humanitarian supplies. The agency has been under fire amid revelations that many of its staff are members of Hamas, including several who participated in the October 7 attacks.
Meanwhile, soldiers continued operating in the Al-Amal neighbourhood of Khan Yunis, apprehending terrorists, locating weapons and destroying terror infrastructure. Numerous Hamas terrorists were killed in close-quarters combat, the IDF said.
Airstrikes in other areas of Gaza hit Hamas compounds and tunnels rigged with explosives, weapons storage facilities, rocket launching positions and military compounds.
At least 1,200 people were killed and 240 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the remaining 134 hostages, Israel recently declared 31 of them dead.(ANI/TPS)
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