{"id":866437,"date":"2026-08-21T17:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T17:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/866437\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T17:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T17:36:10","slug":"shameful-uk-australia-and-canada-criticise-israel-over-gaza-aid-convoy-killings-decision-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/866437\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Shameful\u2019: UK, Australia and Canada criticise Israel over Gaza aid convoy killings decision | Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"

Britain, Australia and Canada have called the decision of the Israeli military authorities not to open a criminal investigation into the April 2024 airstrikes<\/a> that hit a convoy of aid vehicles in Gaza \u201cshameful\u201d. The strikes killed seven humanitarian workers from the US-based World Central Kitchen (WCK) organisation.<\/p>\n

WCK staff from the three countries were among the casualties of the attack, which prompted global outrage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision is both too little, and too late. The victims of this incident and their families deserve justice and accountability, and we will continue to seek answers on their behalf. The World Central Kitchen attack is one of countless incidents in Gaza where there has been no accountability,\u201d the countries\u2019 joint statement said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It continued: \u201cIn Gaza<\/a>, humanitarian workers continue to work tirelessly to support civilians in desperate need, risking their lives whilst working in the most perilous conditions. Yet despite the fragile ceasefire, Gaza remains the deadliest place to deliver aid, with 186 humanitarian workers killed in 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Australia\u2019s government expressed \u201coutrage\u201d over the decision, while relatives said that Zomi Frankcom, the Australian among those killed, deserved more than an \u201cinternal, opaque process that ends with a short statement by the Israeli military absolving their soldiers of criminal wrongdoing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s ambassador to Australia, Hillel Newman, defended the decision.<\/p>\n

The Polish government said on Thursday it was \u201cvery disappointed\u201d and called for Israeli authorities to cooperate with Polish investigations into the incident. Damian Sob\u00f3l, a volunteer from Przemy\u015bl, was also among the casualties.<\/p>\n

In London, the Foreign Office said the UK was \u201cappalled and angry\u201d for the families of John Chapman, James Henderson and James Kirby, three British citizens who were killed in the attack.<\/p>\n

WCK, which distributed food in Gaza throughout the war, said immediately after the lethal attack that it had coordinated with the military over the movement of its cars, which had the group\u2019s logo on their roofs visible from the air.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has never been any excuse or justification for the attacks, and there is nothing in this account that does so. The decision is inconsistent with the full truth and deeply offensive,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The IDF said on Wednesday that it had mistaken several individuals in the vehicles for armed Hamas military operatives, and that the WCK convoy had deviated from the previously coordinated route. But it concluded that \u201cthe decisions of the commanders did not raise reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct\u201d. Two officers were removed from their positions at the time and three others reprimanded.<\/p>\n

One of the officers who was dismissed had reportedly<\/a> signed an open letter earlier that year calling for Gaza to be deprived of aid. Israel imposed strict restrictions on the entry of humanitarian assistance during the conflict in Gaza, where experts declared a famine<\/a> in August 2025.<\/p>\n

The Israeli military admitted on Wednesday that its troops had opened fire on a car carrying five-year-old Hind Rajab and six family members in Gaza in 2024, saying it had ordered a criminal investigation into the killing, as well as into the fatal shooting of 15 paramedics in 2025.<\/p>\n

Hind Rajab died after a desperate three-hour phone call<\/a> to the Palestinian Red Crescent on 29 January 2024 in which she pleaded for rescue. The family\u2019s Kia Picanto car had been hit as they sought to flee a new Israeli offensive into Gaza City. All the other passengers were also killed.<\/p>\n

The IDF repeatedly denied its troops had been in the area near the incident, but investigations by media and others found evidence that strongly suggested nearby Israeli tanks were responsible.<\/p>\n

The IDF said that as part of the its obligations under international law and Israeli domestic law it examined \u201cexceptional incidents that occurred during combat\u201d, but experts said criminal misconduct investigations into Israeli troops over the killing of Palestinians very rarely lead to convictions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Britain, Australia and Canada have called the decision of the Israeli military authorities not to open a criminal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":866438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-866437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}