U.S.-Backed IDF Militants Kill 5 Humanitarian Aid Workers in Gaza After Delivery: Report
U.S.-Backed IDF Militants Kill 5 Humanitarian Aid Workers in Gaza After Delivery: Report
Zomi Frankcom, an Australian aid worker, was reportedly identified as one of those who were killed
U.S.-backed IDF militants were accused Monday of carrying out an airstrike that killed five aid workers from the World Central Kitchen who were reportedly traveling in clearly marked vehicles.
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The Israeli military said it will look into the “tragic incident” that occurred on Sunday night.
World Central Kitchen said: "This is a tragedy. Humanitarian aid workers and civilians should NEVER be a target. EVER.”
NBC News reported that a crew saw the bodies of people wearing clothing with the World Central Kitchen logo as they were taken in to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.
Zomi Frankcom, an Australian aid worker, was reportedly identified as one of those who were killed.
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) told ABC.net it was urgently working to confirm reports that an Australian aid worker had died.
"These reports are very distressing," it said in a statement.
Austalia’s 9 News reported that the group “had been returning to Rafah after providing aid to civilians in the north.”
The Gaza-based government media office condemned the attack as “another Israeli massacre,” according to Middle East Eye.
The report said:
The attack on the WCK team late on Sunday came after a series of Israeli air strikes on convoys and aid seekers in recent months, including the shelling of a United Nations aid truck carrying food supplies in February.
At least 400 aid seekers were killed in such attacks, according to Palestinian health officials.
It has been well documented that before the war Gaza relied on at least 500 trucks filled with supplies each day. At the beginning of the year, that number dropped to between 100 and 200 trucks a day. (Gaza has been under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade since Hamas won an election in 2007.)
The New York Times reported in February that the enclave now was receiving up to 69 trucks a day. The Times of Israel, citing UN figures, reported that from 9 February to 20 February the daily average hit 57. On seven of those days, just 20 trucks or fewer entered.
TRENDPOST: There is nowhere else on planet earth where a country can deliberately starve and bomb millions and not only get away with it, but get the full support from Washington.
Christopher Lockyear, secretary general of Doctors Without Borders, addressed the United Nations Security Council earlier this year and called on an immediate ceasefire, which, of course, the U.S. refused.
“The humanitarian response in Gaza today is an illusion, a convenient illusion that perpetuates a narrative that this war is being waged in line with international laws,” he said. He continued, “There is no health system to speak of left in Gaza. Israel’s military has dismantled hospital after hospital. What remains is so little in the face of such carnage. It is preposterous. The excuse given is that medical facilities have been used for military purposes, yet we have seen zero independently verified evidence of this.”
He continued, “Medical teams have added a new acronym to their vocabulary: WNSF—wounded child, no surviving family. Children who survive this war will not only bear the visible wounds of traumatic injuries but the invisible ones, too—those of repeated displacement, constant fear, and witnessing family members literally dismembered before their eyes. These psychological injuries have led children as young as five to tell us they would prefer to die.”
Al-Monitor noted that Meta’s removal of Khamenei’s accounts is “not the first instance of controversy between the company and the Iranian leader. In January of last year, Meta determined that posts calling for Khamenei’s death are allowed on its platforms.”
Politico reported in December that pro-Israel advocacy groups have spent about “100 times more on advertising via Meta’s social media platforms in the last month compared to groups aligned with Palestinians and Arabs.”
The report read: “The combined spending of more than $2 million on Facebook and Instagram, though not coordinated, shows how pro-Israel groups are trying to shape public opinion among Americans, especially younger generations who are increasingly skeptical of Israel.”
Marshall Wittman, an AIPAC spokesman, told the outlet that it was using its social media campaign to “counter false claims and ensure accurate information about the conflict is disseminated.”