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Medics prepare the bodies of World Central Kitchen workers, who were killed in an Israeli strike, for their return to their home countries on Wednesday. (Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images)

Middle East conflict live updates U.S. condemns strike on World Central Kitchen as aid groups pull back

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Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “expressed his outrage” in a call with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over an Israeli strike on a World Central Kitchen aid convoy that killed seven people, including an American, according to a readout of the call. U.N. relief agencies have suspended nighttime operations in Gaza for at least 48 hours to make a security assessment since the strike, a spokesperson said, after WCK and at least two other groups said they would pause operations in Gaza.

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World Central Kitchen founder José Andrés on Wednesday accused Israel of targeting his aid workers. They were hit “systematically, car by car,” he told Reuters. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel “deeply regrets” the incident, while the IDF said the strike was a “grave mistake” and the result of a “misidentification.”
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, vowed to retaliate against Israel for an attack on its embassy complex in Damascus, Syria. The early-morning post on X, written in Hebrew, is the latest incendiary rhetoric between the two nations after the strike killed two high-ranking members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet and a political rival of Netanyahu’s, called for national elections to be held in September. The ruling Likud party said elections would “paralyze us, divide us,” and “hurt combat in Rafah,” southern Gaza.
The biggest sticking point in ongoing hostage release negotiations is Hamas’s demand for displaced Palestinians to be able to return to their homes within Gaza, “which the Israelis didn’t agree to yet,” Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said during a joint news conference with the Spanish prime minister.
At least 32,975 people have been killed and 75,577 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, and says the majority of the dead are women and children.
Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and says 256 soldiers have been killed since the start of its military operation in Gaza.
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World Central Kitchen founder José Andrés on Wednesday accused Israel of targeting his aid workers. They were hit “systematically, car by car,” he told Reuters. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel “deeply regrets” the incident, while the IDF said the strike was a “grave mistake” and the result of a “misidentification.”
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, vowed to retaliate against Israel for an attack on its embassy complex in Damascus, Syria. The early-morning post on X, written in Hebrew, is the latest incendiary rhetoric between the two nations after the strike killed two high-ranking members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet and a political rival of Netanyahu’s, called for national elections to be held in September. The ruling Likud party said elections would “paralyze us, divide us,” and “hurt combat in Rafah,” southern Gaza.
The biggest sticking point in ongoing hostage release negotiations is Hamas’s demand for displaced Palestinians to be able to return to their homes within Gaza, “which the Israelis didn’t agree to yet,” Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said during a joint news conference with the Spanish prime minister.
At least 32,975 people have been killed and 75,577 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, and says the majority of the dead are women and children.
Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and says 256 soldiers have been killed since the start of its military operation in Gaza.
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Israel-Gaza war

President Biden issued a rare direct rebuke of Israel for creating the conditions that have made the distribution of aid inside Gaza so difficult and deadly, following the strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel “deeply regrets” the incident.

Israel-Gaza war: On Oct. 7, Hamas militants launched an unprecedented cross-border attack on Israel that included the taking of civilian hostages at a music festival. (See photos and videos of how the deadly assault unfolded). Israel declared war on Hamas in response, launching a ground invasion that fueled the biggest displacement in the region since Israel’s creation in 1948.

Gaza crisis: In Gaza, Israel has waged one of this century’s most destructive wars, killing tens of thousands and plunging at least half of the population into “famine-like conditions.” For months, Israel has resisted pressure from Western allies to allow more humanitarian aid into the enclave.

U.S. involvement: Despite the tensions between some U.S. politicians, including President Biden, and Netanyahu, the United States supports Israel with weapons, funds aid packages, and has vetoed or abstained from U.N. cease-fire resolutions.

History: The roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mistrust are deep and complex, predating the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. Read more on the history of the Gaza Strip.