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UK Premier calls on Israel to investigate killing of aid workers in Gaza

April 2, 2024 at 3:14 pm

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak attends the Lord Mayors Banquet in the Great Hall of Guildhall in London, United Kingdom on November 13, 2023 [Stringer – Anadolu Agency]

The British Prime Minister, on Tuesday, called on Israel to investigate the killing of aid workers in Gaza, Anadolu Agency reports.

“We’re asking Israel to investigate what happened urgently, because clearly there are questions that need to be answered,” Rishi Sunak told reporters during his visit to north-east England.

Earlier Tuesday, the US-based Charity, World Central Kitchen (WCK), said its seven humanitarian aid workers were killed in Monday’s Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip.

Stating that aid workers were doing “fantastic work” to help people in the besieged Palestinian enclave, Sunak said that they should be praised and commended and need to be allowed to do that work unhindered.

“And it’s incumbent on Israel to make sure that they can do that,” he added.

Sunak said that Israel has both the “intention and the ability” to comply with international humanitarian law, and mentioned that he has made it clear to his Israeli counterpart, Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that “there have been too many civilian deaths in Gaza”.

“Of course, we want to see an immediate humanitarian pause so that we can get the hostages out and more aid into the region,” the British Premier added.

The WCK said that, despite coordinating movements with the Israeli army, the convoy was hit as it was leaving the Deir Al-Balah warehouse, where the team had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza.

The aid group announced it was pausing operations in the region after the “targeted attack”.

The victims included nationals of Australia, Poland, the UK and Palestine as well as a US-Canadian citizen.

Israel has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians since a 7 October cross-border attack by Palestinian group, Hamas, which claimed 1,200 lives.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

READ: Australia Premier seeks phone call with Netanyahu over aid worker’s killing, no contact yet