Israel’s Herzog apologises for strike that killed Gaza aid workers
Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday expressed his “deep sorrow and sincere apologies” for the “tragic loss of life” after at least seven foreign aid workers and their Palestinian driver were killed in an Israeli air strike on Monday. The Israeli military said that an independent, professional expert body would investigate the killing of the World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza. Read our blog to see how the day's events unfolded.
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This blog is no longer being updated. For more coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, please click here.
Summary:
- Food aid organisation World Central Kitchen (WCK) said Tuesday an Israeli strike killed seven of its workers in the Gaza Strip as they delivered food aid that had arrived by sea earlier in the day.
- Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday expressed his "deep sorrow and sincere apologies" for the air strike.
- The Israeli military said that an independent, professional expert body would investigate the deaths of seven people working for the World Central Kitchen in Gaza.
- Israeli negotiators will return from talks in Cairo on Tuesday after a new proposal for a Gaza truce and hostage release was drafted, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office said.
- Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry and eyewitnesses say Israel's assault on the Al Shifa hospital left destruction on a massive scale. Health officials said dozens of bodies have been recovered in and around the complex.
- At least 32,916 Palestinians have been killed and 75,494 wounded since Israel began its offensive on Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave. Around 1,140 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks and 250 people taken hostage, according to Israeli figures, with 132 still missing.
Yesterday's key developments:
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Seven members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including three senior commanders, were killed in an Israeli attack on an Iranian consulate in Damascus, the Guards said in a statement Monday.
- The Israeli parliament passed a bill Monday giving top ministers the authority to bar from Israel the broadcasts of news channel Al Jazeera – a step premier Binyamin Netanyahu is poised to take.
- The Israeli military on Monday announced the death of a soldier in fighting in the Gaza Strip, bringing the total number of troops killed since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel to 600.
- The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said Monday the Israeli military had withdrawn tanks and vehicles from the complex housing the besieged territory's main hospital, Al-Shifa, two weeks after the launch of a major operation on the site. Israel's military confirmed the completion of its operation there.
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The health ministry does not report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of “Israeli aggression”.
The ministry also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Throughout four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have cited the Hamas-run health ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.
In the aftermath of war, the UN humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records. The UN's counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza health ministry’s, with small discrepancies.
For more on the Gaza health ministry’s tolls, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)
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