SCOTTISH politicians have condemned the Israeli killing of three aid workers in Gaza with the UK Government urged to call out “war crimes”.
The World Central Kitchen (WCK) has said it was left “heartbroken” by an attack which left three aid workers dead along with two others following an airstrike on a vehicle.
Israeli military has said the alleged attacker targeted in Saturday’s strike had taken part in that attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
A statement from the Israel Defence Forces asked “senior officials from the international community and the WCK administration to clarify” how this person had come to work for the charity.
Both former first minister Humza Yousaf (below) and Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie have condemned the attacks.
Speaking to The National, Yousaf said: “It is heartbreaking to see yet more humanitarian aid workers killed by Israel whilst simply trying to provide food to innocent people in Gaza.
“More than 40,000 innocent women, children and men have been killed since the bombardment of Gaza began – and hundreds of thousands have been injured or displaced.”
He added that the “international community has utterly failed” in stopping breaches of international law “being committed on a daily basis”.
“The UK is complicit in the atrocities we are witnessing, by continuing to sell arms to Netanyahu’s government – they must stop and end all arms sales to Israel,” Yousaf said.
“The people of Gaza need actions, not platitudes. The SNP continues to urge all parties to step up their efforts to agree a ceasefire urgently so that no more innocent people are killed with impunity, hostages are released to their loved ones, the bombing can stop and the unimaginable suffering that this conflict has caused can finally end.”
Earlier this month, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for both Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant.
Downing Street has said the UK would arrest Netanyahu if he sets foot on British soil though Keir Starmer has previously been criticised for his stance on Palestine, including refusing to describe Israel’s bombardment as “genocide”.
Israel rejects the allegations and says both courts are biased against it.
Speaking to The National, Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie (below) said his “thoughts are with those who died and their loved ones and colleagues at WCK”.
“An attack on vehicles carrying aid workers cannot be justified, and increases further risk of famine in Gaza,” he said.
“It is a punishment inflicted on the Palestinian people and those who seek to help them. These are civilians being targeted by trained military personnel while trying their best to help other civilians survive day to day, handing out the most basic items of food and water.
“A ceasefire must happen to end this conflict and allow the people of Gaza to rebuild their lives.
“Just last week the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant. As a founding member of the ICC, the UK must be ready to condemn the war crimes these leaders are perpetrating and act accordingly to end the ongoing genocide of Palestinian people.”
In a statement on Twitter/X, WCK said: “We are heartbroken to share that a vehicle carrying WCK colleagues was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.
“At this time, we are working with incomplete information and are urgently seeking more details.
“WCK had no knowledge that any individual in the vehicle had alleged ties to the October 7 Hamas attack.
“WCK is pausing operations in Gaza at this time. Our hearts are with our colleagues and their families in this unimaginable moment.”
Aid convoys halted
Elsewhere, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said on Sunday it is halting aid deliveries through the main cargo crossing into Gaza because of the threat of armed gangs who have looted recent convoys.
It blamed the breakdown of law and order in large part on Israeli policies.
The decision could worsen the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as the cold, rainy winter sets in, with hundreds of thousands of people living in squalid tent camps and reliant on international food aid.
Experts were already warning of famine in the territory’s north, which Israeli forces have almost completely isolated since early October.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, the main aid provider in Gaza, said the route leading to the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel is too dangerous on the Gaza side.
Armed men looted nearly 100 trucks travelling on the route in mid-November, and he said gangs stole a smaller shipment on Saturday.
Kerem Shalom is the only crossing between Israel and Gaza that is designed for cargo shipments and has been the main artery for aid deliveries since the Rafah crossing with Egypt was shut down in May.
Last month, nearly two-thirds of all aid entering Gaza went through Kerem Shalom, and in previous months it accounted for an even larger amount, according to Israeli figures.
In a post on Twitter/X, Lazzarini largely blamed Israel for the breakdown of humanitarian operations in Gaza, citing “political decisions to restrict the amounts of aid”, lack of safety on aid routes, and Israel’s targeting of the Hamas-run police force, which had previously provided public security.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on the decision.
Overnight Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed at least six people, including two young children, aged six and eight, who died in the tent where their family was sheltering, medical officials said on Sunday.
The strike in the Muwasi area, a sprawling tent camp housing hundreds of thousands of displaced people, also injured the children’s mother and their eight-month-old sister, according to the nearby Nasser Hospital.
A separate strike in the southern city of Rafah, on the border with Egypt, killed four men, according to hospital records.
The Israeli military said it was not aware of strikes in either location. Israel says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians, but its daily strikes across Gaza often kill women and children.
A former top Israeli general and defence minister has accused the government of ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza, where Israeli forces have been waging the latest in a series of offensives against Hamas since early October.
The army has sealed off the northern towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, and the Jabaliya refugee camp, and allowed almost no humanitarian aid to enter.
Tens of thousands of people have fled, while the United Nations estimates up to 75,000 remain and experts have warned of famine.
Moshe Yaalon, who served as defence minister under Benjamin Netanyahu before quitting in 2016 and emerging as a fierce critic of the prime minister, said the current far-right government is determined to “occupy, to annex, to ethnically cleanse”.
Pressed by an interviewer with a local news outlet on Saturday, he said: “There is no Beit Lahiya. No Beit Hanoun. [They are] operating now in Jabaliya, and [they] are actually cleaning the territory of Arabs.”
Yaalon reiterated the remarks in an interview with Israeli radio on Sunday, saying “war crimes are being committed here”.
Netanyahu’s (above) Likud party criticised his earlier remarks, accusing him of making “false statements” that are “a prize for the International Criminal Court and the camp of Israel haters”.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around people 250 hostage. Some 100 captives are still being held inside Gaza, around two-thirds of whom are believed to be alive.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 44,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were combatants.
Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
