Closing summary
It has gone 4pm in Gaza, Tel Aviv and Beirut, and 5pm in Sana’a. We will be closing this blog soon, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here.
Here is a recap of the latest developments:
The bodies of six foreign aid workers killed in a Gaza strike are expected to be transported out via Egypt on Wednesday. Israeli bombardment killed seven staff of the US-based food charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) on Monday in an attack that UN chief António Guterres labelled “unconscionable” and “an inevitable result of the way the war is being conducted”. The remains of the six international staff, who were killed alongside one Palestinian colleague, were set to be taken out of Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, said Marwan al-Hams, director of the city’s Abu Youssef al-Najjar hospital.
WCK founder José Andrés described the seven people killed on a WCK mission in Gaza on Monday as the “best of humanity”. He wrote in a piece published in English in the New York Times and in Hebrew in Yedioth Ahronoth: “They are not faceless or nameless. They are not generic aid workers or collateral damage in war … we welcome the government’s promise of an investigation into how and why members of our World Central Kitchen family were killed.”
Joe Biden said that Israel is not doing enough to protect aid workers and has called for a swift investigation into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) drone attack in Gaza which killed seven people working for the WCK charity.“This conflict has been one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have been killed,” the US president said, in comments that were highly critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Early on Wednesday, the IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi put the strike down to “misidentification”, adding that the “the strike was not carried out with the intention of harming WCK aid workers,” and that it was a mistake that should not have happened.
Rishi Sunak called for an urgent investigation into the deaths of three British aid workers working for the WCK who were killed by an Israeli airstrike that hit an aid convoy in Gaza. A Downing Street spokesperson said the prime minister “was appalled by the killing of aid workers, including three British nationals, in an airstrike in Gaza … and demanded a thorough and transparent independent investigation into what happened”.
The British citizens killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza will be remembered as “heroes”, their families have said. James Kirby, 47, John Chapman, 57 and James Henderson, 33, were among seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers killed in strikes by the Israel Defense Forces on Monday. The family of Chapman said in a statement on Wednesday, that he had been “subject to an inhumane act”.
The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza seems likely to worsen after charities announced they are suspending operations in the territory in the aftermath of an Israeli drone attack which repeatedly targeted a clearly identified convoy of international aid workers, killing seven. Calling the decision an “unprecedented step”, Anera said the killings, “alongside the loss of numerous other aid workers and their families, has led our team to conclude that delivering aid safely is no longer feasible”
An attack that killed aid workers, including a Polish national, in Gaza and the reaction of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu have caused “understandable anger” and are straining relations with Warsaw, Poland’s prime minister said on Wednesday. “Mr prime minister Netanyahu, Mr ambassador Livne the vast majority of Poles showed full solidarity with Israel after the Hamas attack,” Donald Tusk wrote on social media platform X. “Today you are putting this solidarity to a really hard test. The tragic attack on volunteers and your reaction arouse understandable anger.”
Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese said he had spoken with Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling him that Australians were ‘outraged’ over the death of aid worker Zomi Frankcom in an Israeli airstrike. “There is a need for a thorough investigation into what happened here and prime minister Netanyahu committed to that,” Albanese said, before describing Frankcom as someone “who we can all be proud of”.
Australian foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said Netanyahu “must change course”. “I would say to Mr Netanyahu that wartime does not obviate responsibility for observing international humanitarian law, including the protection of aid workers,” Wong told the ABC. Wong, who also spoke with the Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz on Tuesday evening, reiterated that “unless Israel, Mr Netanyahu, changes his course of action, Israel will continue to lose [international] support. We say to Mr Netanyahu: you must change course”.
Canadian foreign minister, Mélanie Joly, called on Wednesday for a “full investigation” into the killing of aid workers in Gaza, among whom was a Canadian citizen, by an Israeli airstrike. Speaking on the sidelines of a Nato foreign ministers meeting in Brussels, Joly said Israel needed to respect international law, adding Canada would make sure it does.
Prosecutors in the home city of the Polish aid worker killed in Gaza launched an investigation into his killing, reported state news agency PAP on Wednesday. “We have started an investigation into the killing of Polish citizen Damian Sobol on 1-2 April in the Gaza Strip as a result of an attack by the Israeli armed forces using explosives,” Beata Starzecka, the deputy district prosecutor in Przemysl, told PAP.
“We should mourn the loss of these brave humanitarian workers, including the three British citizens that tragically were killed,” David Cameron, the UK foreign secretary, told press outside the Nato summit on Wednesday. Cameron added: “I welcome what the Israeli foreign minister said yesterday to me about a full, urgent and transparent inquiry into how this dreadful event was allowed to happen. And we want to see that happen very, very quickly.”
Pope Francis expressed his “deep sorrow” on Wednesday for the deaths of seven charity workers killed by an Israeli strike while they were delivering aid in Gaza. The 87-year-old pontiff said during his weekly audience at the Vatican:“I pray for them and their families.” He also renewed his appeal for access to humanitarian aid for the “exhausted and suffering civilian population” of Gaza, and for the hostages taken by Hamas to be released.
The UN Human Rights Council will consider a draft resolution on Friday calling for an arms embargo on Israel, citing the “plausible risk of genocide in Gaza”. If the draft resolution is adopted, it would mark the first time that the UN’s top rights body has taken a position on the war in Gaza.
An ongoing Lebanese army investigation has determined that a landmine injured three UN military observers and a translator last week, a judicial official said on Wednesday. The ongoing investigation by the army and peacekeepers from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) has yet to determine who planted the mine, a Lebanese official told AFP, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.
Israel’s military said on Wednesday it had obtained information that indicated a Hezbollah explosive charge had caused the blast in south Lebanon that injured three UN military observers and a translator last week. A source close to Hezbollah told AFP the Iran-backed group would “certainly not respond to the Israeli accusations”, adding that the matter was in the hands of Unifil and the army. Unifil spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told AFP that preliminary reports showed “the explosion was not caused by direct or indirect fire”.
The latest figures from the Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said 59 Palestinians were killed and 83 injured in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours. According to the statement, at least 32,975 Palestinians have been killed and 75,577 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
The families of Israeli hostages have staged four consecutive nights of mass protests, joined by a resurgent anti-government movement. Thousands gathered in front of Israel’s parliament on Tuesday, with former prime minister Ehud Barak blaming Netanyahu for the 7 October “disaster” and demanding new elections.
Gen Ramazan Sharif, a spokesperson for Iran’s paramilitary revolutionary guard, accused Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of using airstrikes on countries in the region as a way to divert public attention from the “the racist nature of this regime.” He warned Israel over the airstrike that destroyed Iran’s consulate in Damascus, on Monday, and killed 12 people, including two Iranian generals. The strike has been widely blamed on Israel, but it has not clarified its involvement, and seldom comments on attacks it makes outside its borders.
The Vermont senator and former US presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders told the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu: “Stop murdering innocent people.” Sanders delivered his blunt message in an interview with MSNBC on Tuesday, a day after seven aid workers were killed by an Israeli strike in Gaza.
The UK government is under pressure from Tory MPs and peers to stop arming Israel after seven humanitarian aid workers were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza. Three Conservatives told the Guardian on Wednesday that the UK should stop exporting arms to Israel after the strike, which killed three British aid workers.
Lord Ricketts, who was the former permanent secretary at the UK Foreign Office, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday: “Sometimes in conflict, you get a moment where there’s such global outrage that it crystalises a sense that things can’t go on like this.” Ricketts said the international community “needs to look at further steps to increase the pressure on [Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu,” adding that the UK should stop arming Israel.
The country director for American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera) in Palestine, Sandra Rasheed told Al Jazeera that the aid agency had paused its operations in Gaza. She told the news network: “This is something that we were forced to do to ensure our safety. Our staff have guided our work, and they themselves feel like there’s a target on their backs.”
Updated
The British citizens killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza will be remembered as “heroes”, their families have said.
James Kirby, a 47-year-old former Army sniper, and John Chapman, 57, were among seven World Central Kitchen aid workers killed in strikes by the Israel Defense Forces on Monday.
The pair worked in the charity’s security team and died alongside fellow British military veteran James Henderson, 33.
Kirby’s family described him as a “genuine gentleman” who lost his life trying to help others.
In a statement to the BBC, they said: “As a family, we are utterly heartbroken by the loss of our beloved James Kirby. Alongside the other six individuals who tragically lost their lives, he will be remembered as a hero.
“James understood the dangers of venturing into Gaza, drawing from his experiences in the British Armed Forces, where he bravely served tours in Bosnia and Afghanistan. Despite the risks, his compassionate nature drove him to offer assistance to those in dire need.”
You can read the full piece by Emine Sinmaz here:
