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World Central Kitchen said that seven of its workers in Gaza were killed in an Israeli strike and that it was immediately halting its operations in the region. (Video: AP)

Middle East conflict live updates Israeli military says strikes that killed Gaza aid workers were ‘grave mistake’

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The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday evening that according to a preliminary inquiry, the deaths Monday of seven aid workers for World Central Kitchen had been the result of a “misidentification — at night during a war in very complex conditions.” IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi called the incident a “grave mistake,” and said the strike “was not carried out with the intention of harming WCK aid workers,” echoing earlier remarks by Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The food aid nonprofit said earlier Tuesday that it would immediately halt operations in the region. The victims, who were identified by the aid group in a statement Tuesday evening, included a dual citizen of the United States and Canada, an Australian citizen, a Polish citizen, a Palestinian and three British citizens.

Key updates
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“This is not an isolated incident,” said U.N. humanitarian coordinator James McGoldrick, citing the killing of at least 196 humanitarian workers in the occupied West Bank and Gaza since October. “This is nearly three times the death toll recorded in any single conflict in a year.” The 196 includes more than 175 U.N. staffers, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said Tuesday.
The WCK ships carrying nearly 400 tons of food had arrived in Gaza on Monday, and about 100 tons of it had been offloaded and was being distributed when the attack happened. After the charity suspended its activities, the remaining 240 tons of aid will be returned to Cyprus, Cypriot Foreign Ministry spokesman Theodoros Gotsis told the Associated Press.
The United Nations is planning a mission to Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital as soon as it can gain access, Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for the U.N. secretary general, said Monday. The IDF said it had pulled back from the hospital after a roughly two-week siege that left the sprawling medical campus in ruins.
An Israeli airstrike near Iran’s embassy in Damascus, Syria, killed a senior Iranian commander and several Iranian diplomats Monday. The strike killed a senior commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to Iranian news reports. U.S. officials said they had no involvement nor advance warning of the strikes.
An Israeli delegation returned from cease-fire talks in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on Tuesday afternoon, after working with mediators on an “updated proposal for Hamas,” according to the prime minister’s office. Hamas officials have not yet responded to the latest round of talks.
At least 32,845 people have been killed and 75,392 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack and says 256 soldiers have been killed since the start of its military operation in Gaza.
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“This is not an isolated incident,” said U.N. humanitarian coordinator James McGoldrick, citing the killing of at least 196 humanitarian workers in the occupied West Bank and Gaza since October. “This is nearly three times the death toll recorded in any single conflict in a year.” The 196 includes more than 175 U.N. staffers, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said Tuesday.
The WCK ships carrying nearly 400 tons of food had arrived in Gaza on Monday, and about 100 tons of it had been offloaded and was being distributed when the attack happened. After the charity suspended its activities, the remaining 240 tons of aid will be returned to Cyprus, Cypriot Foreign Ministry spokesman Theodoros Gotsis told the Associated Press.
The United Nations is planning a mission to Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital as soon as it can gain access, Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for the U.N. secretary general, said Monday. The IDF said it had pulled back from the hospital after a roughly two-week siege that left the sprawling medical campus in ruins.
An Israeli airstrike near Iran’s embassy in Damascus, Syria, killed a senior Iranian commander and several Iranian diplomats Monday. The strike killed a senior commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to Iranian news reports. U.S. officials said they had no involvement nor advance warning of the strikes.
An Israeli delegation returned from cease-fire talks in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on Tuesday afternoon, after working with mediators on an “updated proposal for Hamas,” according to the prime minister’s office. Hamas officials have not yet responded to the latest round of talks.
At least 32,845 people have been killed and 75,392 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack and says 256 soldiers have been killed since the start of its military operation in Gaza.
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Israel-Gaza war

Israel-Gaza war: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel’s military struck civilians in the Gaza Strip in a “tragic incident” after the aid organization World Central Kitchen said seven of its workers were killed while distributing food. Meanwhile, an airstrike near Iran’s embassy in Syria’s capital killed a senior Iranian commander and several Iranian diplomats, according to Tehran’s state media, which said it was an Israeli attack.