Israel is doing its best to squander the goodwill extended to it after the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas killed 1,200 people in Israel.
Since, the Israel Defense Forces, under the incompetent leadership of their despicable Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has killed about 32,000 Palestinians in Gaza, two-thirds women and children.
It seems clear that Israel has committed war crimes in response to the war crimes committed by Hamas. So now there's basically a moral equivalency between the horrible things Hamas did to people in Israel on October 7, and the horrible things (on a much larger scale) Israel has been doing to people in Gaza since.
I'm outraged at how Israel has been acting for numerous reasons.
One big reason is that polls show that most Israelis, who like to claim that they're morally superior because of the suffering of Jews in the Holocaust, are behaving in a similar genocidal fashion by wanting to deny humanitarian aid from entering Gaza.
Indeed, Israel is using famine as an act of war. That's a war crime, for sure. Hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza are at extreme risk of starvation due to Israel failing to allow sufficient food into Gaza.
Which gets me to the latest Israeli outrage. The World Central Kitchen headed up by chef José Andrés has been distributing food in Gaza. They've notified Israel of when and where their aid convoys have been going. Their vehicles are clearly marked with World Central Kitchen on the roofs.
Yet late Monday night Israeli drones killed seven World Central Kitchen staff. Netanyahu is lying when he claims it was an "accident."
This wasn't a case of bullets or a shell going astray. This was a pinpoint attack on three World Central Kitchen vehicles, not an accident. The drone operator directed a missile to hit the roof of this vehicle, hitting it right next to the World Central Kitchen logo and name.
A New York Times story, "Israeli Strikes Kill 7 Aid Workers in Gaza," says:
Israeli strikes on an aid convoy run by the charity group World Central Kitchen killed seven of its workers in the Gaza Strip, setting off international outrage and underscoring the risks to humanitarian workers trying to alleviate a looming famine.
The aid workers — a Palestinian, an Australian, a Pole, three Britons and a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen — were traveling in two armored vehicles clearly marked with the World Central Kitchen logo and a third vehicle when they came under fire late Monday night, according to the charity.
The convoy was hit despite having coordinated its movements with the Israeli military, the group said. The workers were leaving a warehouse in Deir al Balah, in central Gaza, where the team had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid that had arrived by boat on Monday, World Central Kitchen said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who rarely comments on deadly strikes in Gaza, released a videotaped statement on Tuesday in which he appeared to acknowledge that the Israeli military was responsible. Israel launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the strikes.
...World Central Kitchen, which was founded by the renowned chef José Andrés, said on Tuesday that it was suspending operations in the territory.
“This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war,” Erin Gore, the group’s chief executive, said in a statement. “This is unforgivable.”
Several nations, including the home countries of the people killed, voiced indignation and demanded explanations.
President Biden said in a statement: “I am outraged and heartbroken by the deaths of seven humanitarian workers from World Central Kitchen.” He added: “Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians. Incidents like yesterday’s simply should not happen. Israel has also not done enough to protect civilians.”
David Cameron, the British foreign secretary, called the workers’ deaths “completely unacceptable” in a social media post, adding, “Israel must urgently explain how this happened and make major changes to ensure the safety of aid workers.”
Videos and photos verified by The New York Times suggest the convoy was hit multiple times. The imagery shows three destroyed white vehicles, with the northernmost and southernmost vehicles nearly a mile and a half apart.
The Times of Israel says:
IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi issued an apology after midnight on Wednesday for a deadly Israeli strike on an aid convoy in Gaza, adding that it was a result of a “misidentification,” which was being investigated and learned from.
The stoic video statement from the military leader came as new details emerged from the Monday night incident, which reportedly saw three cars from a World Central Kitchen convoy targeted one after another by drone-fired missiles, leaving seven humanitarian workers dead.
I have extremely little confidence in whatever B.S. report the Israel Defense Forces come up with in an attempt to excuse their war crime. Israel, under Netanyahu, has lied repeatedly about the war in Gaza. The country seems to have an archaic Old Testament view of the war: God favors the Jews, so Israel can do no wrong in smiting their enemy. Even when it does.
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