GENEVA: The Doctors Without Borders medical charity (MSF) said on Thursday it rejected Israel’s position that an airstrike which killed seven aid workers was a “regrettable incident”, saying many humanitarian personnel have been attacked previously.
Seven workers from World Central Kitchen, which provides food relief in crisis and conflict zones, were killed when their convoy was hit on Monday night shortly after they oversaw the unloading of 100 tonne of food brought to the Palestinian enclave by sea.
“We do not accept the narrative of regrettable incidents,” Christopher Lockyear, Secretary General of MSF International, said at a press conference in Geneva.
“We do not accept it because what has happened to World Central Kitchen and MSF’s convoys and shelters is part of the same pattern of deliberate attacks on humanitarians, health workers, journalists, UN personnel, schools and homes.”
He added: “We have been saying it for weeks now: this pattern of attacks is either intentional or indicative of reckless incompetence. That these attacks on humanitarian workers are allowed to happen is a political choice. Our movements and locations are shared and identified already. This is about impunity, a total disregard for the laws of war. And now it must become about accountability.”