Entered 2024.04.07 18:10 Modified 2024.04.07 18:10
“IRC, Doctors Without Borders, etc. are also damaged… Israeli military systematically fails to protect aid organizations.”
UN: “224 aid workers have died in six months since the outbreak of war in Gaza” Amid continued criticism from the international community over the incident in which seven international aid workers were killed in the Israeli military’s bombing of a relief truck in the Gaza Strip, aid groups have already lost the number of victims. It was claimed that the area had been under attack by the Israeli military for six months. On the 1st (local time), the Israeli military accidentally exploded three relief vehicles belonging to the international relief organization World Central Kitchen (WCK) in the Gaza Strip, killing seven activists.
As the international community’s criticism of this intensified, Israel announced the results of an investigation that the tragedy occurred because the military made a ‘series of serious mistakes’, dismissed the two officers who ordered the airstrike, including a colonel and a major, and reprimanded three other officers. did.
On the 6th, NBC reported that after reviewing various documents, public statements, and interviews, it was discovered that the Israeli military had been attacking relief organizations and humanitarian facilities for several months even before the attack on the aid truck. The Israeli military characterized this accidental bombing incident as a one-time mistake, but the damage suffered by aid organizations during the war suggests that it was not a simple mistake, but that the Israeli military’s approach to protecting aid organizations in the Gaza Strip systematically failed. .
According to the United Nations, 224 aid workers have died since the Gaza War broke out on October 7 last year.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also responded to the Israeli military’s announcement about this accidental bomb incident, saying, “The fundamental problem is not who made the mistake,” and “It is the military strategy and procedures that ensure such mistakes can be repeated many times.” Israel’s previous attacks on international aid organizations include two attacks on WCK, before a recent car attack in which seven employees were killed, and a bomb being dropped near a building housing International Rescue Committee (IRC) aid workers. NBC explained that this includes the bombing of the home of a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) aid worker.
WCK said that on the 30th of last month, two days before the attack on the relief truck, an Israeli sniper shot at their relief vehicle and damaged its side mirror.
No one was injured in the attack and the incident was reported to the Israeli military, the group said. The group reported that on the 23rd of last month, a week before this incident, the Israeli military opened fire on Gaza civilians who were trying to receive food from a transport truck carrying WCK food in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip.
According to Gaza authorities, 19 civilians were killed in the incident. IRC stated that they had also been attacked by the Israeli military.
On January 18, a bomb exploded just a few meters away from an IRC facility in the village of al-Mawasi, on the outskirts of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, injuring several IRC workers, NBC reported.
Doctors Without Borders said that on February 20, Israeli tanks shelled the house where its employees and their families were sheltering, killing two people.
Also, on January 9, the five-year-old daughter of a Doctors Without Borders employee was killed when an Israeli tank attacked a shelter in Khan Younis, the group added.
Other international relief organizations, such as Project Hope and Save the Children, also lost employees in this war.
In particular, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) suffered the highest number of casualties, with 179 employees killed in Israeli attacks since the outbreak of the Gaza War on October 7 last year.
To prevent unintentional attacks on aid workers when operating in war zones, aid organizations rely on the Office of Civilian Assistance (COGAT), the Palestinian civilian affairs organization under the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
Aid organizations inform COGAT almost every day of their movements and provide the locations of their lodgings and warehouses.
However, it is pointed out that this system did not work, and activists belonging to international relief organizations ultimately lost their lives due to attacks by the Israeli military.
IRC Deputy Director Kieran Donnelly criticized, “This kind of conflict mitigation system is in fact a ‘fiction.’” “This pattern of attacks betrays deliberate intent and incompetence,” said Christopher Lockyer, the secretary-general of Doctors Without Borders. did.
/yunhap news
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2024-04-07 09:10:11
