Strikes on aid locations in Gaza 'killed or hurt dozens'

Research by The Independent on impact of Israeli airstrikes is backed by a Human Rights Watch report

- Bel Trew

Israeli forces have killed and injured dozens of humanitarian aid workers, including British citizens, in eight strikes on aid convoys and shelters whose coordinates were shared with Israel to ensure their protection, according to research by The Independent and a new investigation by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Israel’s forces did not issue warnings before the strikes, which killed or injured at least 31 people including several children, HRW’s report alleges. The New York-based rights group identified eight different incidents in total, including the 1 April drone strike on a World Central Kitchen (WCK) convoy, which killed seven aid workers.

It concluded that the eight strikes – which killed at least 15 people, including two children – were likely to have been unlawfully indiscriminate, or to have been carried out without sufficient precautions being taken to ensure that the target was military. The hits also had a massive impact on the distribution and coordination of aid – at a time when Gaza faces famine.

The report corroborated testimonies gathered by The Independent, which show that in several instances British doctors and aid workers were present and even killed or wounded by the strikes. The strikes have included naval shelling and drone strikes. At least one of them took place in a so-called humanitarian zone, al-Mawasi.