Middle East Ticker: Alert in America, Israel and Iran +++ Mother continues to wait for body

The deaths of foreign aid workers in the Gaza Strip in an Israeli airstrike threatens to further isolate the Jewish state and raise further tensions with its most important ally, the United States. US President Joe Biden leveled harsh accusations against Israel on Tuesday evening (local time): “Israel is not doing enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver urgently needed aid to civilians.” In a written statement, Biden complained that this is one of the main reasons humanitarian aid is so difficult to distribute in the Gaza Strip. Israel's Chief of Staff Herzey Halevi described the airstrike that killed several workers at the aid organization World Central Kitchen (WCK) as a “grave mistake”.

“The attack was not carried out with the intention of harming the WCK aides. It was a mistake following a mistaken identity – at night during the war in very complicated conditions. “It should not have happened,” Halevi said in a video statement on Wednesday night. A preliminary investigation revealed this. An independent team will thoroughly investigate the incident.” In the next few days” will end. The Israeli commander expressed his regret that the military will learn from these decisions and “immediately implement them”.

Seven World Central kitchen workers were killed in an Israeli airstrike. Israeli President Isaac Herzog apologized to aid organization founder Jose Andres. Herzog took to the X platform (formerly Twitter) to express his deep sorrow over the “loss of life of the WCK staff”. In a video message, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of the “tragic case of an accidental attack by our armed forces against innocent people in the Gaza Strip.”

“Everybody feels threatened now,” he was quoted as saying “New York Times” On Tuesday (local time) Michael Capponi, founder of the aid organization Global Empowerment Mission. Capponi urged the international community of non-governmental organizations to “make sure that we are safe in our work, which is very important.” In light of the deaths of its staff, the World Central Kitchen Organization wants to immediately suspend its operations in the region and make decisions “about the future of our work” as soon as possible. Israel risks ending up without a partner to provide and deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the Times of Israel quoted a US government official as saying.

Des Ingram, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), told the New York Times that she hoped the WCK workers' deaths would “show the world that what happens here does not happen here.” “The news of the attack is terrible – a dream come true for us,” Save the Children spokeswoman Soraya Ali told the newspaper. “More than 200 aid workers have been killed in this conflict, making it one of the worst conflicts for aid workers in recent history,” US National Security Council Communications Director John Kirby said on Tuesday.