Israel President apologizes after airstrike kills NGO volunteers in Gaza

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he apologized to World Central Kitchen (WCK) founder Jose Andres after Israeli drone strikes hit a car containing seven of his aid workers on Monday ( 1st). All volunteers died.

Herzog “expressed his deep sadness and sincere apologies for the tragic loss of lives of WCK employees in the Gaza Strip last night and sent his condolences to their families and loved ones,” according to a post from the presidency on X.

“The president reiterated Israel’s commitment to ensuring a full investigation of the tragedy,” the post said.

“Identification error”

The top general of the Israeli military has apologized for the drone attack on a World Central Kitchen car, calling the attack “a misidentification.”

Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said in a video statement Tuesday that the military had completed a preliminary interrogation and determined that they did not intend to kill the aid workers.

“I want to be very clear: the attack was not carried out with the intention of harming WCK humanitarian workers. It was a mistake that followed a [outro] misidentification – at night, during a war, in very complex conditions. This should not have happened,” Halevi said.

“We regret the unintentional harm to WCK members. We share the pain of their families, as well as the entire World Central Kitchen organization, from the bottom of our hearts,” Halevi added.

He called the attack “a serious mistake” and promised that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) “will continue to take immediate action to ensure that more is done to protect aid workers.”

“This incident was a serious mistake. Israel is at war with Hamas, not with the people of Gaza,” Halevi added.

Biden government “outraged”

US President Joe Biden's administration said it was outraged by the Israeli airstrike, the White House said on Tuesday, adding that the president also spoke with the organization's founder, José Andrés, to express his condolences.

“We were outraged to learn of an IDF attack yesterday that killed several civilian aid workers from the World Central Kitchen, who have been working tirelessly to get food to those starving in Gaza and, frankly, around the world,” said a spokesperson for White House national security officer John Kirby at a news conference on Tuesday.

“We send our deepest condolences to their families and loved ones.”

Kirby said the White House had seen comments from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF that they would investigate and said the government expects the investigation to be conducted “in a rapid and comprehensive manner.”

“We hope these findings are made public and there is appropriate accountability,” Kirby said. He said a preliminary investigation has now been completed.

According to Kirby, one of the victims was a dual citizen of the United States.

NGO identifies dead

The World Central Kitchen shared the identities of the seven aid workers killed by Israel in central Gaza.

In a post on X on Tuesday, the aid group named:

• John Chapman, 57, a British national on the security team;
• James (Jim) Henderson, 33, a British national on the security team;
• James Kirby, aged 47, a British national on the security team;
• Jacob Flickinger, 33 years old, dual American and Canadian citizen who is part of the rescue team;
• Damian Sobol, 35, a Polish citizen on the rescue team;
• Lalzawmi (Zomi) Frankcom, aged 43, Australian citizen and relief team leader;
• Saifeddin Issam, 25, a Palestinian member of the relief team.

“These are the heroes of the WCK. These 7 beautiful souls were killed by the IDF [Forças de Defesa de Israel] in an attack when they returned from a day-long mission. Their smiles, laughs and voices will forever be etched in our memories,” said WCK CEO Erin Gore.

(With input from Tim Lister, Nikki Carvajal, Jeremy Diamond and Hira Humayun of CNN )