The bodies of six foreign aid workers killed in a Gaza strike were expected to be transported out of the war-torn Palestinian territory via Egypt on Wednesday as Israel faced a chorus of outrage over their deaths.
Israeli bombardment killed seven staff of the US-based food charity World Central Kitchen on Monday in an attack that UN chief Antonio Guterres labelled “unconscionable” and “an inevitable result of the way the war is being conducted”.
The remains of the six international staff, who were killed alongside one Palestinian colleague, were set to be taken out of Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, said Marwan Al-Hams, director of the city’s Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital.
Israel’s armed forces chief Herzi Halevi called the attack a “grave mistake”, which he blamed on nightime “misidentification”, adding in a video message that “israel is sorry for the unintentional harm to the members of WCK”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier pledged the “tragic case” would be investigated “right to the end”.
