Poland’s President Andrzej Duda has strongly denounced “outrageous” remarks by the Israeli ambassador to Warsaw over the killing of a Polish aid worker in an Israeli strike in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Ambassador Yacov Livne gave an interview late on Wednesday in which he stopped short of apologizing for the deadly strike after he had been repeatedly asked to do so.
President Duda on Thursday said Livne’s remarks were “not very fortunate, in short, outrageous.”
The Polish president also called for Israel to provide compensation to the victim’s family “for the sake of decency, for the sake of principles.”
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk also said, “If the ambassador decides to make public appearances in our media, he should use this opportunity to offer a simple, human apology.”
The Israeli airstrike on April 1 killed seven staffers of the US-based food charity World Central Kitchen (WCK), including Damian Sobol, the 35-year-old Polish citizen.
Polish officials have warned the strike was likely to increase anti-Israeli sentiments in Poland.
Israel is under fire worldwide for deliberately targeting charity staff bringing food to Gaza.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has joined the United Nations and world countries in demanding “full transparency and accountability” over the attack.
Albanese toughened his language over the killing of the Australian citizen Lalzawmi Frankcom. “This is against humanitarian law.”
Israeli military likely knew identities of aid workers: Humanitarian groups
Humanitarian organizations say the Israeli military likely had advance notice of the names and nationalities of each of the aid workers killed by Israeli airstrikes.
The communications director for the United Nations aid agency UNRWA, Juliette Touma, shed light on the “intense” coordination that routinely occurred with Israeli authorities prior to aid deliveries.
“Only when they give us the approval do we move – and before we move we provide the Israeli authorities with quite a lot of detail,” Touma said
“We include the names and nationalities of the team that is travelling on the convoy, the content of the convoy, the number of vehicles that we are sending on that convoy, the route of that convoy including GPS coordinates with the Israeli authorities.”
The chief executive of the Australian Council for International Development, Marc Purcell, said it would be “extraordinary if the Israeli military” hadn’t known the “identities” of the workers “because they were there with the full awareness of the Israeli forces”.
The founder of the US-based charity, World Central Kitchen, earlier criticized Israel over the killing of his staff in Gaza, saying the regime’s forces systematically targeted a convoy carrying aid workers.
Andres said that cars were hit purposefully one after the other in a civilian area under the control of the Israeli army.
“Then they hit the third one and we saw the consequences of that continuous targeting attack – seven people dead, but they are seven on top of a list of more than another 190 humanitarian workers that [have] been killed over the last six months,” he said.
He held Israel responsible for the killing, which he said, was not the outcome of a bad luck situation.
He added that the Israeli forces were well informed about the convoy’s movement and that the cars were clearly marked with the charity’s logo.
Over 60-percent of non-governmental aid getting into the besieged strip is from the World Central Kitchen. The charity has suspended its operations in Gaza following the attack.
