John Hudson/The Washington Post
man inspects the wreckage of a World Central Kitchen vehicle after Israel’s deadly airstrike on the convoy in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza. (photo: Reuters)
04 april 24 (RSN.org)
The Biden administration signed off on thousands more bombs to Israel despite global condemnation of the IDF’s killing of seven World Central Kitchen employees
The Biden administration approved the transfer of thousands more bombs to Israel on the same day Israeli airstrikes in Gaza killed seven aid workers for the charity group World Central Kitchen, three U.S. officials told The Washington Post this week after the incident elicited global condemnation.
The transaction, which has not been previously reported, demonstrates the administration’s determination to continue its flow of lethal weaponry to Israel despite Monday’s high-profile killings and growing calls for the United States to condition such support on greater protection for civilians in the war zone. A U.S. citizen was among the dead.
The move also casts new light on the emotional statement by President Biden that he was “outraged and heartbroken” by the tragedy and was insistent that such events never happen again.
“They were providing food to hungry civilians in the middle of a war,” Biden said. “They were brave and selfless.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The Israeli government confirmed it carried out Monday’s strike but called it “unintentional,” saying the military would conduct a “transparent” investigation and make the results public.
The State Department approved the transfer of more than 1,000 MK82 500-pound bombs, over 1,000 small-diameter bombs, and fuses for MK80 bombs, all from authorizations granted by Congress several years before the latest hostilities between Israel and Hamas began, said the U.S. officials, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive arms deals.
A State Department spokesperson confirmed the approval and said it occurred sometime “prior” to when the Israeli aircraft struck the aid convoy.
The U.S. government has the authority to suspend an arms package any time before delivery, which the spokesperson said probably would not occur until 2025 or later. It has not done so in this case.
When asked why the Biden administration did not at least pause the process after the incident or until the Israelis’ investigation was completed, the spokesperson did not provide further comment.
Officials have not publicly disclosed what type of munition struck the aid truck, but the small-diameter bombs the United States has provided to Israel are “certainly comparable,” said Josh Paul, a former State Department arms expert who resigned in protest of the administration’s Gaza policy.
Biden, in his statement following the attack, offered his most pointed criticism to date of Israel’s treatment of humanitarian workers, who have died in greater numbers than in any other recent conflict.
“Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians. Incidents like yesterday’s simply should not happen,” Biden said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the slain workers, who included individuals from Australia, Britain, the Palestinian territories, Poland, and a U.S.-Canadian dual national, were “heroes.”
“They have to be protected. We shouldn’t have a situation where people who are simply trying to help their fellow human beings are themselves at grave risk,” he said.
Some Democratic supporters of the Biden administration criticized such statements, saying they result in little change when U.S. actions convey unconditional support for Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
“Until there are substantive consequences, this outrage does nothing,” Ben Rhodes, a former foreign policy adviser to President Barak Obama, said on X.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “obviously doesn’t care what the U.S. says, it’s about what the U.S. does,” he said.
Republicans in Congress have been broadly supportive of weapons transfers to Israel and have defended its tactics and methods in the six-month conflict. Former president Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee in this year’s election, has said Hamas’s killing rampage in southern Israel on Oct. 7 was “one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen” but that Israel needs to end the war soon.
“You have to finish it up, you got to get it done,” he told an Israeli newspaper last month.
World Central Kitchen on Thursday called for a third-party investigation into the attacks and urged the home countries of the killed workers to join the charity in calling for an independent review.
The strikes hit three of the group’s vehicles as they traveled in Gaza on a route that had been coordinated and cleared with the Israeli military, the charity group said. The workers were killed shortly after overseeing the unloading of 100 tons of food brought to the enclave by sea.
José Andrés, the celebrity chef who founded World Central Kitchen, has alleged that Israel targeted the aid workers “systematically, car by car.”
“This was not just a bad luck situation where ‘oops’ we dropped the bomb in the wrong place,” he told the Reuters news agency.
“This was over a 1.5, 1.8 kilometers, with a very defined humanitarian convoy that had signs in the top, in the roof, a very colorful logo that we are obviously very proud of,” he said. It’s “very clear who we are and what we do.”
Israel launched its military assault in Gaza after Hamas-led militants rampaged across the border on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostage. Israel’s ensuing assault on Gaza has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants and says the majority of the dead are women and children.
The Israeli siege has created a chronic shortage of food, water and medicine as the health system has collapsed and dozens of children have died of malnutrition and starvation, according to the United Nations.
The dire need has compelled humanitarian workers from around the world to help provide aid to the besieged enclave, but Monday’s killings are forcing aid groups to reassess the security environment.
U.N. relief agencies have paused night operations to make a security assessment, a spokesperson said Wednesday. At least two other aid groups have also said they would pause operations in Gaza because of safety concerns for their staff. About 200 aid workers have been killed during the war, most of them Palestinian, according to the United Nations.
The latest arms transfers represent small portions, valued in the millions of dollars, of much larger foreign military sales that were approved by Congress years ago but never fulfilled in their entirety. The use of older cases means the State Department is not required to provide a new notification to Congress, even though the geopolitical and humanitarian context has changed significantly since the sales were approved.
When asked Tuesday about the State Department’s role in continued arms transfers, Blinken cited regional threats to Israel from Iran and Hezbollah, saying the weapons “go to deterrence, trying to avoid more conflicts. They go to replenishment of their supplies and their stocks.”
But U.S. weapons are also being used in Gaza, which U.S. intelligence officials and a growing number of Democrats worry could pose a security threat to the United States from extremist groups seeking to retaliate against Washington’s policies.
“Every moment that this nightmarish humanitarian condition continues inside Gaza is a day that the United States is less safe, because we bear global responsibility side by side with Israel,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told MSNBC on Wednesday.
“Until commitments can be made to open up more humanitarian access, the United States needs to stop sending military aid,” Murphy added. “It’s not only because we hope that it has some impact on decision-making inside Israel, but also because we think that actually helps insulate us from some of the blowback that is going to occur as terrorist recruitment grows.”
Before it got dark we kept looking at the sky; soft fleecy… Then we had another doze…; then here was a level crossing, at which were drawn up a long line of motor omnibuses and motors, all burning pale yellow lights. It was getting grey — still a fleecy mottled sky… All the fields were auburn with June grasses and red tasselled plants none coloured as yet, all pale. Pale and grey too were the little uncompromising Yorkshire farms. As we passed one, the farmer and his wife and sister came out, all tightly and tidily dressed in black, as if they were going to church. At another ugly square farm, two women were looking out of the upper windows. These had white blinds drawn down half across them. We were a train of 3 vast cars, one stopping to let the others go on; all very low and powerful; taking immensely steep hills… We got out and found ourselves very high, on a moor, boggy, heathery, with butts for grouse shooting. There were grass tracks here and there and people had already taken up positions. So we joined them, walking out to what seemed the highest point looking over Richmond. One light burned down there. Vales and moors stretched, slope after slope, round us. It was like the Haworth country. But over Richmond, where the sun was rising, was a soft grey cloud. We could see by a gold spot where the sun was. But it was early yet. We had to wait, stamping to keep warm… There were thin places in the clouds and some complete holes. The question was whether the sun would show through a cloud or through one of these hollow places when the time came. We began to get anxious. We saw rays coming through the bottom of the clouds. Then, for a moment, we saw the sun, sweeping — it seemed to be sailing at a great pace and clear in a gap; we had out our smoked glasses; we saw it crescent, burning red; next moment it had sailed fast into the cloud again; only the red streamers came from it; then only a golden haze, such as one has often seen. The moments were passing. We thought we were cheated; we looked at the sheep; they showed no fear; the setters were racing round; everyone was standing in long lines, rather dignified, looking out. I thought how we were like very old people, in the birth of the world — druids on Stonehenge; (this idea came more vividly in the first pale light though). At the back of us were great blue spaces in the cloud. These were still blue. But now the colour was going out. The clouds were turning pale; a reddish black colour. Down in the valley it was an extraordinary scrumble of red and black; there was the one light burning; all was cloud down there, and very beautiful, so delicately tinted. Nothing could be seen through the cloud. The 24 seconds were passing. Then one looked back again at the blue; and rapidly, very very quickly, all the colours faded; it became darker and darker as at the beginning of a violent storm; the light sank and sank; we kept saying this is the shadow; and we thought now it is over — this is the shadow; when suddenly the light went out.
