Israel launched three separate drone strikes on an aid convoy in its attack that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers, Haaretz reported on Tuesday.
One Israeli drone fired three missiles at three cars that were clearly marked with the WCK’s logos and were traveling on roads preapproved by the Israeli military. After the first car was hit, wounded survivors were picked up by a second car. After that car was hit, they went into the third car. Then, the Israeli drone finished the job.
The attack killed three British nationals, a dual American-Canadian citizen, a Palestinian, an Australian, and a Polish citizen. Israeli officials have claimed the airstrikes were a mistake, but the meticulous nature of the operation suggests it was a targeted killing of aid workers and part of Israel’s campaign to starve Palestinians, as several aid organizations have suspended operations in Gaza in response.
According to Israeli sources speaking to Haaretz, the three cars were hit after escorting an aid truck to a food warehouse in central Gaza.
The sources said the Israeli unit responsible for the route claimed to identify an armed man on the aid truck and suspected he was a “terrorist,” although he could have just been providing security for the aid shipment. Israel has repeatedly targeted Gaza’s police officers who guard aid convoys.
The alleged armed man was the justification for the strike, even though the cars were hit after leaving the aid truck at the warehouse. Another Haaretz report cited Israeli sources who said the strikes happened not because of a lack of coordination between aid groups and the Israeli military but because Israeli “officers on the ground do what they want.”
The White House defended the Israeli slaughter of aid workers during a press briefing on Tuesday. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby claimed there was “no evidence” that it was a deliberate strike in a testy exchange with a reporter.
When asked if killing aid workers violated international humanitarian law, Kirby said, “Your question presumes, at this very early hour, that it was a deliberate strike, that they knew exactly what they were hitting, that they were hitting aid workers and did it on purpose. There’s no evidence of that.”
Kirby also repeated a lie from the State Department that there was no evidence that Israel has violated international law since October 7. “I will also remind you, sir, that we continue to look at incidents as they occur. The State Department has a process in place, and to date, as you and I are speaking today, they have not found any incidents where the Israelis have violated international humanitarian law,” he said.
Israel has been bombing aid workers in Gaza throughout the war as hundreds of employees of the UN’s Palestinian relief agency, UNWRA, have been killed. Back in November, POLITICO reported that the US was sharing with Israel the location of aid groups in Gaza to avoid strikes on those areas, but Israel was bombing them anyway.