Israel-Gaza war: Israel defence chief says ‘sorry’ for airstrike that killed Aussie aid worker
Israel’s defence chief has shared some insight into how the deadly air strike that killed aid workers including Australian Zomi Frankcom happened. Warning: Graphic. Follow updates.
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Israel’s defence chief said a strike that killed seven aid workers in Gaza was a “grave mistake”, after the deaths prompted a chorus of international outrage.
“This incident was a grave mistake,” IDF chief Herzi Halevi said in a video message after the strike that hit a World Central Kitchen (WCK) convoy delivering aid on Monday.
“It shouldn’t have happened,” Halevi said, as he blamed the strike on a nightime “misidentification”.
“We are sorry for the unintentional harm to the members of WCK.”
AFPTV footage from the scene showed the punctured roof of a vehicle emblazoned with WCK’s logo alongside the mangled wreck of other vehicles.
Since Hamas’ October attack, the US-based charity had been involved in feeding displaced Gazans, and was one of two organisations spearheading the delivery of food aid arriving by sea.
The employees killed on Monday had just unloaded “more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route,” WCK said.
The attack, which killed Melbourne woman Lalzawmi Zomi Frankcom, as well as British, Palestinian, Polish and US-Canadian staff, was widely condemned, with world leaders demanding an investigation.
In a strongly worded statement, US President Joe Biden said Israel “has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians.” He called for a “swift” investigation to bring accountability to what he said was not a “stand alone incident”.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the General Assembly that 196 humanitarian workers have been killed in the war.
He called the strike “unconscionable” but “an inevitable result of the way the war is being conducted”.
“It demonstrates yet again the urgent need for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.”
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‘HAPPENS IN WAR’: NETANYAHU RESPONDS TO AUSSIE’S DEATH
Israel has admitted it unintentionally killed seven aid workers including Melbourne woman Lalzawmi Zomi Frankcom, 43, after blasting a convoy of cars in Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his office is investigating the “tragic case” and added: “This happens in war.”
The aid workers from the UK, Australia, and Poland, dual citizens of the US and Canada, and their Palestinian driver and translator were killed while travelling in a deconflicted zone, charity World Central Kitchen said.
Mr Netanyahu said in a video address: “Unfortunately, in the last day there was a tragic case of our forces unintentionally hitting innocent people in the Gaza Strip.
“This happens in wartime. We are thoroughly looking into it, are in contact with the governments (of the foreigners among the dead) and will do everything to ensure it does not happen again.”
The volunteers were in two armoured cars branded with the WCK logo after unloading more than 100 tonnes of humanitarian food aid at a warehouse in Deir al-Balah where they were hit on Monday.
Shocking footage showed the victims’ bodies, several wearing protective gear with the charity’s logo on, at a hospital in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah.
Haunting images show bloodied passports of some of the victims - one of them the Australian woman - found among the debris.
The international food charity immediately suspended its operations in the region and the remaining 240 tonnes will now be sent back to Cyprus.
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the IDF had “expressed the deepest condolences” to the families of those killed.
“Last night, an incident took place in Gaza that resulted in the tragic death of World Central Kitchen employees as they fulfilled their vital mission of bringing food to people in need,” he said.
“As a professional military committed to international law, we are committed to examining our operations thoroughly and transparently.
“I just spoke to WCK founder chef Jose Anders and expressed the deepest condolences of the Israel Defence Forces to the families and the entire World Central Kitchen family.
“We also express sincere sorrow to our allied nations who have been doing and continue to do so much to assist those in need.”
The IDF said: “Following the reports regarding the World Central Kitchen personnel in Gaza today, the IDF is conducting a thorough review at the highest levels to understand the circumstances of this tragic incident. “The IDF makes extensive efforts to enable the safe delivery of humanitarian aid, and has been working closely with World Central Kitchen in their vital efforts to provide food and humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.”
WCK chief executive Erin Gore said in a statement: “This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organisations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war.
“This is unforgivable.”
WHITE HOUSE ‘OUTRAGED’ OVER AID WORKER DEATHS
US President Joe Biden insisted aid workers be protected as he called the chef whose humanitarian non-profit lost seven employees in an Israeli strike in Gaza, the White House said .
The White House added that it was “outraged” by the strike on employees of World Central Kitchen, which was founded by Spanish-American celebrity chef Jose Andres.
“The president called chef Jose Andres to express that he’s heartbroken by this news of the airstrike that killed seven aid workers, and to express and share his deepest condolences,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
“The president conveyed he will make clear to Israel that humanitarian aid workers must be protected,” she told a briefing.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby later said:“We were outraged to learn” of the strike.
The United States now awaited the results of an Israeli investigation into the killings, said Kirby, adding that he expected it to be completed within days rather than weeks.
Kirby said they would wait for the findings, when asked whether Washington accepted Netanyahu’s explanation that the incident was accidental.
AUSSIE AID WORKER POSTED PIC BEFORE ‘UNACCEPTABLE’ DEATH
Australian aid worker Lalzawmi “Zomi” Frankcom sent her family a picture of herself just hours before she was killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza.
Ms Frankcom, from Melbourne, died along with four colleagues in the air strike just days out from the six-month anniversary of the conflict.
The 43-year-old was working with the World Central Kitchen helping deliver food and other supplies to northern Gaza.
Ms Frankcom sent a picture of herself to her family back home in Australia before she crossed the checkpoint into Gaza.
She was wearing a helmet and appeared to have a bullet proof vest on over her clothes.
The Frankcom family said they were “reeling in shock”.
“We are deeply mourning the news that our brave and beloved Zomi has been killed doing the work she loves delivering food to the people of Gaza.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joined a chorus of world leaders who condemned Israel’s strike on the aid workers, slamming the “completely unacceptable” attack, and calling it a “tragedy that should never have occurred”.
“She was a kind, selfless and outstanding human being that has travelled the world helping others in their time of need. She will leave behind a legacy of compassion, bravery and love for all those in her orbit,” the family statement said.
WORLD BANK ESTIMATES GAZA DAMAGE AT US$18.5BN
The World Bank says the Israel-Hamas war has caused damage of around $18.5 billion to Gaza’s critical infrastructure, according to a new report published Tuesday.
This is equivalent to 97 percent of the combined economic output of the West Bank and Gaza in 2022, the World Bank said in its interim damage assessment, which covers the period between the onset of the conflict on October 7 and the end of January.
The report, produced with the United Nations and the European Union, found structural damage affected “every sector of the economy,” with more than 70 percent of the estimated costs due to the destruction of housing.
ISRAEL’S HORROR WITHDRAWAL FROM MAIN GAZA HOSPITAL
Israel said it had battled Palestinian militants hiding inside Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital, killing at least 200 enemy fighters and recovering large stockpiles of weapons, explosives and cash.
The health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said that, after heavy Israeli air strikes and tank fire, “the scale of the destruction inside the complex and the buildings around it is very large”.
“Dozens of bodies, some of them decomposed, have been recovered from in and around the Al-Shifa medical complex,” it said, adding that the hospital was now “completely out of service”.
Several doctors and civilians at the damaged complex told AFP that at least 20 bodies had been found, some of which appeared to have been driven over by military vehicles.
Several were found close to the west entrance to the complex, which the Israeli army used during its departure from the hospital grounds on Monday.
“Bodies … The tanks went over them. Destruction. Children. Innocents. Unarmed civilians. They (soldiers) went over them,” one witness said, asking not to be named.
An AFP correspondent saw one badly decomposed body bearing tyre marks, although it was not known when it was driven over.
AFP has asked the Israeli military for comment.
Battles have also flared around other Gaza hospitals almost six months into the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attacks which have destroyed swathes of the besieged coastal territory.
The Hamas government press office said the army had blown up more than 20 houses within 24 hours in the main southern city of Khan Yunis, where battles have raged around the Nasser and Al-Amal hospitals.
Over the past two weeks, the Israeli army carried out what it labelled “precise operational activity” at the Al-Shifa complex, before declaring on Monday that the forces had withdrawn.
The scene left behind was one of devastation, with windows blown out, concrete walls blackened and volunteers carrying away shrouded corpses across the sandy wasteland.
Dozens of air strikes and shelling had hit the area around the complex in the morning, in heavy fire which the Hamas government media office said served to provide cover for the withdrawing troops and tanks.
The army has in recent days released footage of its fighters moving through the hospital’s corridors, and pictures of large numbers of assault rifles, grenades and other weapons it said were recovered from the maternity ward.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign against the Hamas militants’ attack on October 7 has killed at least 32,845 people, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.
US-ISRAEL MEET OVER RAFAH OFFENSIVE PLANS
The United States and Israel were due to hold a virtual meeting Monday local time on the planned offensive in Gaza’s Rafah, a week after Israel called off a delegation’s visit to Washington.
Tensions have risen between Israel and its chief backer the United States over the heavy civilian death toll in Gaza, and especially over Israeli plans to send ground forces into Gaza’s crowded far-southern city of Rafah.
Israel had agreed to send a delegation to Washington for discussions on the plans, but cancelled the trip after the United States failed to veto a UN Security Council ceasefire call, abstaining instead.
“The meeting is scheduled for today. It will be online. There may be a meeting in person later this week,” said an Israeli source, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A US official confirmed the virtual meeting, adding that “we anticipate follow-up meetings in person following additional work by expert teams.”
HAMAS CHIEF’S SISTER ARRESTED
Israeli police have arrested the sister of Qatar-based Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, as part of a terror probe, in the southern Israel town of Tel Sheva.
Police told AFP that Sabah Abdel Salam Haniyeh, 57, who is an Israeli citizen, was taken into custody as part investigation also involving Israel’s security agency Shin Bet.
A police spokesman said she is “suspected of having contact with Hamas operatives and identifying with the organisation, while inciting and supporting acts of terrorism in Israel”.
NEW PALESTINIAN GOVERNMENT SWORN IN
With international pressure mounting for the Palestinian Authority to reform, a new Palestinian government has been sworn in.
The Palestinian Authority has long been considered as ‘corrupt’ by the US and by Palestinians themselves.
According to Palestinian news agency WAFA, the new cabinet will be led by Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa, who was officially sworn in on Sunday before President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank.
Mustafa was appointed earlier this month to replace former Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh, who resigned in February along with his government.
“Work is underway with Arab and international parties to stop the Israeli aggression on Gaza,” President Abbas said.
“Our political goal is to achieve freedom, independence and liberation from the occupation, and we are working with concerned Arab and international parties to obtain full membership in the United Nations.”
He said there needed to be “far-reaching institutional reforms to enhance performance and provide better services to the Palestinian people everywhere.”
OUTRAGE AFTER ISRAEL HITS GAZA HOSPITAL CAMP
An Israeli air strike on a Gaza hospital killed four people and wounded 17, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
The strike at Al-Aqsa hospital was witnessed by a World Health Organisation team sent there to assess needs and to collect incubators for the north of Gaza, Tedros said in a post on X.
Israel’s military denied that the hospital was damaged.
“A WHO team was on a humanitarian mission at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza, when a tent camp inside the hospital compound was hit by an Israeli air strike today,” the WHO chief wrote.
He gave no details of the victims, but added: “WHO staff are all accounted for.”
The Israeli army said on X that one of its planes “struck an operational Islamic Jihad command centre and terrorists positioned in the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Hospital in the area of Deir al Balah.
“Following the precise strike, the Al-Aqsa hospital building was not damaged and its function was not affected,” it added.
Tedros said in a later post that 21 patients had died at Al-Shifa hospital in the northern Gaza City since March 18.
The hospital, which was Gaza’s largest before the war broke out, has only one bottle of water available for every 15 people, he said.
Tedros renewed his appeal for patients, health professionals and aid workers to be protected during the conflict, and for attacks on hospitals to stop.
“We again call for protection of patients, health personnel and humanitarian missions,” he added.
“The ongoing attacks and militarisation of hospitals must stop. International humanitarian law must be respected.”
Tedros urged all parties to the conflict to comply with the UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire.
There are 10 hospitals in the Gaza Strip still functioning at a minimum level, compared to 36 before the start of the war, according to the WHO.
As well as air strikes there has also been fierce ground fighting in and around hospitals in the territory, where many Gazans fleeing the violence have taken shelter.
Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in about 1160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 32,782 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.
WATER CANONS USED ON ISRAELI PROTESTERS
Thousands of Israelis calling for boosted efforts to free the hostages held in Gaza and the ouster of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu marched in Jerusalem on Sunday local time, the second consecutive night of mass protests.
Demonstrators blocked a main city highway after earlier rallying in front of the Israeli parliament, lighting fires and waving Israeli flags.
Police used water cannon against them, jostling and pushing protesters back as they shouted that Netanyahu “must go”.
Protesters claimed the Jerusalem protest was the biggest since the war in Gaza broke out in October.
Families of the hostages held in Gaza say they will take to the streets every night this week in a bid to “bring them home”.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Caesarea, Raanana and Herzliya.
Among them are the families of hostages being held by Hamas, who kidnapped them on October 7 last year.
According to CNN, opposition leader Yair Lapid has called on the government to pay attention to the ongoing demonstrations.
“Present here in the crowd are families of hostages. They stood outside the Kirya (the Israel DF headquarters in Tel Aviv), screamed their souls out, and nobody heard. They waved signs and no one saw. The Israeli government is ignoring their existence,” Lapid said.
The brother of Itzhak Elgarat, one of the hostages, called on Netanyahu to resign.
“Bibi, this is the end to the shady deals, the end to corruption,” he said, using Netanyahu’s nickname. “Bibi, this is the end to playing games with us. 177 days! Bibi – this is the end!”
POPE CALLS FOR CEASEFIRE
Pope Francis has renewed his calls for the release of Israeli hostages and an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, as fresh truce negotiations between Israel and Hamas were due to begin.
“I appeal once again that access to humanitarian aid be ensured to Gaza, and call once more for the prompt release of the hostages seized on October 7 and for an immediate ceasefire in the Strip,” the Pope said in his Easter message on Sunday at the Vatican.
The pontiff urged the world to resist “the logic of weapons” in his Easter message, easing growing health fears as he greeted thousands of Catholics.
The 87-year-old’s “Urbi et Orbi” (To the City and the World) blessing came after he led Easter Mass in front of 60,000 worshippers at Saint Peter’s Square while appearing in good spirits.
In his traditional speech broadcasted worldwide, Francis condemned war as “always an absurdity and a defeat”, raising conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Myanmar and beyond.
He called for greater aid deliveries to devastated Gaza and the release of hostages taken by Hamas during its unprecedented attack on Israel that sparked the war.
The civilian population is “now at the limit of its endurance”, he said, lamenting the impact on children especially.
“Let us not allow the strengthening winds of war to blow on Europe and the Mediterranean. Let us not yield to the logic of weapons and rearming,” he added.
AUSSIE SOLDIER WOUNDED IN LEBANON AIR STRIKE
An Australian soldier was wounded while patrolling Lebanon’s southern border with Israel as part of Australia’s contribution to the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation, defence has confirmed.
The soldier, who has not been named, was on a routine patrol with three United Nations military observers and an interpreter as part of Operation Paladin in Lebanon on Saturday when they were hit during an Israeli drone strike.
“The member was undertaking a routine United Nations patrol to monitor activity near the Israeli-Lebanon border, and was accompanied by three United Nations military observers and an interpreter,” a Defence spokesman said.
“The member sustained non-life threatening blast injuries, was transported to a health centre at a nearby military base for treatment and has now been released to recover.
“Defence is taking the appropriate steps to ensure the safety and welfare of the member.”
Lebanese media, citing security officials, reported an Israeli drone strike targeted the group on patrol in the southern village of Wadi Katmoun near the border town of Rmeish.
The Israeli military has denied striking a UN vehicle in the area.
“Contrary to the reports, the IDF did not strike a UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon) vehicle in the area of Rmeish this morning,” the Israeli military said on X.
Rmeish mayor Milad Alam told Reuters he heard a blast.
“From Rmeish, we heard a blast and then saw a UNIFIL car zipping by. The foreign observers were taken to hospitals in Tyre and Beirut by helicopter and car,” Mr Milad said.
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati spoke with UNIFIL commander Aroldo Lozaro, condemning the “targeting” and wounding of UN staff in southern Lebanon, according to a statement from Mikati’s office.
Hezbollah-run television station Al-Manar said the others injured were from Chile and Norway, as well as a Lebanese interpreter.
The UN peacekeeping mission known as UNIFIL are stationed in the region to monitor acts of warfare along the demarcation line between Lebanon and Israel, known as the Blue Line.
Andrea Teneti, a spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, said all the injured had been evacuated for medical attention.
He said they were “investigating the origin of the explosion”.
“Safety and security of UN personnel must be guaranteed. All actors have a responsibility under international humanitarian law to ensure protection to non-combatants, including peacekeepers, journalists, medical personnel, and civilians,” Mr Teneti said on X.
“We repeat our call for all actors to cease the current heavy exchanges of fire before more people are unnecessarily hurt.”
FOOD STAMPEDE
The Palestine Red Crescent said five people were killed and dozens wounded by gunfire and a stampede during an aid delivery in Gaza on Saturday, where famine is looming.
AFP video footage shows a convoy of trucks moving quickly past burning debris near the distribution point in pre-dawn darkness as people shout and gunfire echoes — some of which was warning shots, witnesses said.
The Red Crescent said it happened after thousands of people gathered for the arrival of around 15 trucks of flour and other food, which was supposed to be handed out at Gaza City’s Kuwait roundabout, in the territory’s north.
The roundabout has been the scene of several chaotic and deadly aid distribution incidents, including one on March 23 in which the Hamas-run government said 21 people were killed by Israeli fire — a charge Israel denied.
The Red Crescent said three of the five killed early Saturday had been shot. Eyewitnesses told AFP that Gazans overseeing the aid delivery shot in the air, but Israeli troops in the area also opened fire and some moving trucks hit people trying to get the food.
AFP contacted the Israeli military for comment.
THREAT TO NETANYAHU’S LEADERSHIP
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish students could soon be conscripted into the Israeli military to fulfil immediate personnel needs, as the country’s war with Hamas nears the six-month mark.
Israel’s highest court issued an order freezing funding for ultra-Orthodox educational institutions, whose students have historically been exempt from compulsory service.
The ruling has deep ramifications for the Netanyahu government, with some experts warning the issue could lead to a “coalition crisis” that will threaten his leadership.
Conscription is mandatory for almost all other Israelis, male and female, over the age of 18.
According to Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), these young men of the Haredim — as they are known locally — now make up 24 per cent of recruitment-aged Israelis.
A February poll revealed 64 per cent of Israelis believed the exemption should be changed, while the IDI’s latest data reveals the majority rank Benjamin Netanyahu’s performance “poorly”.
The catch, as the government debates how to put the ruling into effect, is that Mr Netanyahu’s coalition relies on the co-operation of two ultra-Orthodox parties to stay in power.
The Israeli Prime Minister has indicated the government will “set goals” for recruiting Haredi men into service, however, he has been vague as to how and when it could be done.
“The worst thing that can happen to us now is to go to general elections during the war, which means losing the war,” he told a group of reporters.
HOSPITALS BESIEGED BY FIGHTING
The Israeli army reported heavy fighting near the Al-Amal Hospital in Gaza’s main southern city of Khan Yunis in which its troops had killed dozens of ‘militants’ and recovered hundreds of weapons.
Across Gaza, Israel’s military said it had struck dozens of targets over the previous day while the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory reported 62 more deaths.
Israel says Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants have fought from inside Gaza hospitals, using patients, medical staff and displaced people for cover – charges the Palestinian militant groups have denied.
Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles have also massed around another Khan Yunis health facility, the Nasser Hospital, but had not yet staged a full-scale raid, the Gaza health ministry said.
Fighting has also rocked the Gaza City district around Al-Shifa Hospital, the territory’s biggest, where the army says it has killed around 200 militants since early last week.
Local resident Abed Radwan, 63, said he had to flee when “Israeli forces stormed all buildings and homes in the Al-Rimal area, arrested several people and forced the rest to walk south”.
“I walked with them,” he said.
“I saw many decomposing bodies in the streets and several houses flattened. They left nothing intact, they destroyed everything.”
UN EXPERT DEFIANT AFTER GENOCIDE FINDING
A UN expert who determined that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza on Wednesday said that she had faced threats over her work but insisted it only made her more determined to push ahead.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories, said this week there were reasonable grounds to believe Israel was committing “genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel, which has long been highly critical of Albanese and her mandate, denounced her report as an “obscene inversion of reality”, while pro-Israeli groups have called for her to step down.
Asked about the blowback at a news conference in Geneva, Albanese acknowledged that “it has been a difficult time”.
The independent expert, who was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in 2022 but who does not speak on behalf of the United Nations, said she had “been attacked since the very beginning of my mandate”.
FREED HOSTAGE TELLS OF HORROR ORDEAL
Released Israeli hostage Amit Soussana has told how she was sexually assaulted and attacked by her Hamas guard during her captivity in Gaza, marking the first time a freed captive has spoken publicly about experiencing sexual abuse.
The New York Times published the 40-year-old lawyer’s harrowing account, which details how she was abducted from her home near the Gaza border.
Ms Soussana, who was released in November, said she was repeatedly beaten and sexually assaulted at gunpoint by her guard inside Gaza.
The non-governmental Association of Rape Crisis Centres in Israel said on social media platform X that Soussana’s “heart-wrenching testimony compels the world to act”.
“The Israeli government and world governments must do whatever it takes to bring home” the remaining hostages, it said.
– with AFP
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