The United States said it was outraged by the IDF airstrike that killed seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen (WCK), as it called on Israel to do more to protect innocent Palestinians and humanitarian workers in Gaza.
US President Joe Biden personally called celebrity chef Jose Andres who runs WCK to express his “heartbroken” grief.
“The President conveyed he will make clear to Israel that humanitarian aid workers must be protected,” White House Press Secretary Kathrine Jean-Pierre told reporters in Washington.
US National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby said that the White House was “outraged,” by the deaths, confirming that one of those killed was a US citizen.
He explained that this “incident is emblematic” of a larger problem of aid distribution in Gaza since the start of the war in October, including the absence of a good deconfliction mechanism to protect aid workers.
“What is clear, is that the IDF must do much more to improve deconfliction processes so that civilians and humanitarian aid workers are protected,” Kirby stated.
The US was still determined to have its military build an offshore temporary pier to help deliver Gaza to Gaza via a sea route, Kirby said as he stressed that US troops would not be on the ground in the enclave.
There is “no illusion about the fact that Gaza is a war zone, and force protection of our troops which will not be entering Gaza will be first and foremost in the President's mind,” Kirby explained.
Israel's aid "insufficient" claims Blinken
In Paris, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters, “We shouldn’t have a situation where people who are simply trying to help their fellow human beings are themselves at grave risk.
The Biden administration has “spoken directly to the Israeli Government about this particular incident,” Blinken explained during a joint press conference with French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne.
“We’ve urged a swift, thorough, impartial investigation to understand exactly what happened,” Blinken stressed.
The seven aid workers who were struck down while delivering food, “join a record number of humanitarian workers who have been killed in this particular conflict,” Blinken stated.
“These people are heroes. They run into the fire, not away from it. They show the best of what humanity has to offer when the going really gets tough. They have to be protected,” he stressed.
Over the past months he and other US officials, including US President Joe Biden have urged Israel to do more to provide humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in Gaza and to ensure that it was safely distributed, Blinken explains.
The US has “worked to impress upon Israel the moral, the strategic, the legal imperative, of doing everything possible to provide humanitarian assistance to people who need it,” Blinken said.
Israel has taken many steps to provide aid to Palestinians, he said, “but it is simply put insufficient.”
The US explained this to Israel when it met with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in Washington last week and then again, during the virtual talk it held on Monday with Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Advisor Ron Dermer.
“We have impressed again upon them the imperative of” humanitarian aid not just “getting into Gaza, but within Gaza” including to the North.
Organization between the army and humanitarian workers has to improve, adding that the lack of such coordination is a “perennial problem” along with the issues around deconfliction.”
Israel agreed to take Biden administration concerns into account as it plans its next steps in Rafah to destroy the remaining Hamas battalions in Gaza, according to the White House.
It spoke out after US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Blinken held virtual talks with Israeli officials who are part of the Strategic Consultative Group, under which a security dialogue occurs between both countries.
The top Israeli participants were Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Adviser Tzahi Hanegbi.
“The two sides over the course of two hours had a constructive engagement on Rafah,” the White House stated.
“They agreed that they share the objective to see Hamas defeated in Rafah. The U.S. side expressed its concerns with various courses of action in Rafah.
“The Israeli side agreed to take these concerns into account and to have follow-up discussions between experts, overseen by the SCG,” the White House explained.
The follow-up discussions would include an in-person SCG meeting as early as next week, the White House said. It spoke amid reports that Dermer and Hanegbi could head to Washington next week
They had initially intended to go last week, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled that trip to protest the Biden administration’s failure to veto a UN Security Council resolution on Gaza.
The Rafah talks have been critical as US and Israeli officials attempt to bridge the difference on a military operation which Netanyahu says is an existential necessity but which Biden officials warn could further isolate Israel on the international stage.
The US wants Israel to conduct targeted strikes against Hamas, while Israel holds that it must conduct a major military operation. It has promised to evacuate the more than 1.3 million Palestinian civilians in Gaza, many of whom fled there to escape bombing in the northern part of the enclave at the start of the war.
Israel has held off on a Rafah operation in part so that it can better organize it and in part, because it has hoped that it would occur after a hostage deal and not before.
But as the hostage talks stall, the possibility of more immediate Rafah operations has increased. The Rafah operation has been one of the pressure levers Israel has used to sway Hamas to make a deal.