On Monday, Israel attacked the World Central Kitchen (WCK) convoy from the air, resulting in the deaths of seven of its staff members. This incident has “outraged” US President Joe Biden quite a bit, who condemned the attack instantaneously. He also accused Israel of letting things go the way they are going and not giving enough protection to the humanitarian aid staff properly.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog apologized and ensured a clear investigation of the incident, as the murdered were residents of the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and Poland. Mr. Biden has advised the Israeli government to speed up the process and “must bring accountability” in front of the public.

Biden said that the Israeli government is the reason why the distribution of aid in Gaza is “so difficult” and has “not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians. The United States has repeatedly urged Israel to deconflict their military operations against Hamas with humanitarian operations in order to avoid civilian casualties.”

Herzi Halevi, the chief of general staff of Israel Defense Forces (IDF), declared the attack a “grave mistake” and called the attack to have happened due to misidentification but “it shouldn’t have happened.”

Three murdered people were from the UK, one from Poland, one from Palestine, and one had US-Canadian citizenship. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “demanded a thorough and transparent independent investigation” of the attack. 

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese “expressed Australia’s anger and concern” and demanded a “full and proper explanation for how this has occurred.” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also called for “full accountability” and considered it “absolutely unacceptable for aid workers to be killed.”

Mr. Netanyahu acknowledged that Israel has targeted “innocent people.” He said, “Unfortunately, in the last 24 hours, there has been a tragic case of our forces unintentionally hitting innocent people in the Gaza Strip. It happens in war; we check it to the end; we are in contact with the governments, and we will do everything so that this thing does not happen again.”

World Central Kitchen (WCK) has become the sole hope of a promising aid to the Gaza people. According to WCK, 42 million meals, in the form of trucks or by sea, have been dispatched to Gaza. After the attack by Israel, the charity is thinking of taking a pause from this aid work. In a statement, it said, “We will be making decisions about the future of our work soon.”

In the occupied Palestinian Territories, the policy-ensuring body of the Ministry of Defense Israel is Cogat. According to it, 60% of volunteer aid is supplied to Gaza by WCK. Another charity with the name of American Near East Refugee Aid is also planning to pause its aid operations in Gaza. The chief executive, Erin Gore, of WCK declared all those who lost their lives in the attack “heroes.” He said, “We have countless memories of them giving their best selves to the world. We are reeling from our loss. The world’s loss.”

The attack took place when the convoy was leaving its Deir al-Balah warehouse, “where the team had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route.”