UK premier calls on Israel to investigate killing of aid workers in Gaza

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - The British prime minister on Tuesday called on Israel to investigate the killing of aid workers in Gaza.

"We're asking Israel to investigate what happened urgently, because clearly there are questions that need to be answered," Rishi Sunak told reporters during his visit to northeast England.

Earlier Tuesday, the US-based charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) said its seven humanitarian aid workers were killed in Monday's Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip.

Stating that aid workers were doing "fantastic work" to help people in the besieged Palestinian enclave, Sunak said that they should be praised and commended and need to be allowed to do that work unhindered.

"And it's incumbent on Israel to make sure that they can do that," he added.

Sunak said that Israel has both the "intention and the ability" to comply with international humanitarian law, and mentioned that he has made it clear to his Israeli counterpart Prime Benjamin Netanyahu that "there have been too many civilian deaths in Gaza."

"Of course, we want to see an immediate humanitarian pause so that we can get the hostages out and more aid into the region," the British premier added.

The WCK said that despite coordinating movements with the Israeli army, the convoy was hit as it was leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse, where the team had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza.

The aid group announced it was pausing operations in the region after the "targeted attack."

The victims included nationals of Australia, Poland, the UK and Palestine as well as a US-Canadian citizen.

Israel has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Palestinian group Hamas, which claimed 1,200 lives.