The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations has accused Israel of deliberately targeting the World Central Kitchen staff killed by a strike in Gaza this week. The ambassador, Riyad Mansour, made these accusations during a meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday.
Mansour stated that the killing of the aid workers was not an isolated incident and that Israel knew who they were targeting. He mentioned that three cars in three locations were hit, despite being identifiable and having coordinated with Israel.
According to the ambassador, it took the deaths of foreigners for the international community to acknowledge the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza over the past 180 days. The strike resulted in the deaths of one Palestinian, three Britons, a US-Canadian dual citizen, an Australian, and a Pole.
Israel Defense Forces published a report on the incident, acknowledging that the killings violated their own protocols and should not have occurred. The report indicated that IDF forces mistakenly assumed there were Hamas gunmen in the aid convoy and opened fire on the vehicles.
The World Central Kitchen has called for further independent investigations, expressing doubt in the IDF's ability to investigate its own failure in Gaza.
