Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been discharged from the Hadassah Medical Center-Ein Kerem in Jerusalem following a successful hernia operation on Sunday night. The Prime Minister's Office released his statement:
"I am being discharged from Hadassah Medical Center-Ein Kerem. In the past day, it became my office. We continued to work from here. I thank Professor Pikarsky and the wonderful medical staff of the hospital who performed a successful hernia operation. Thank you, citizens of Israel, for your well wishes. I am recovering, thank you. Unfortunately, in the past day, a tragic incident occurred - an unintended strike by our forces on peaceful people in the Gaza Strip. Such things happen in war. We are checking everything down to the last detail, in contact with governments. We will do everything to prevent such incidents from recurring."
Before Netanyahu's statement, the IDF refrained from unequivocally confirming that Israeli forces carried out the strike on the World Central Kitchen vehicle.
The IDF Spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, expressed condolences for the deaths of World Central Kitchen staff during military operations in the Gaza Strip and stated that a thorough investigation would be conducted and its results would be shared transparently.
"Last night, an incident took place in Gaza that resulted in the tragic death of World Central Kitchen employees as they fulfilled their vital mission of bringing food to people in need. As a professional military committed to international law, we are committed to examining our operations thoroughly and transparently. I just spoke to WCK Founder Chef Jose Anders. I expressed the deepest condolences of the Israel Defense Forces to the families and the entire World Central Kitchen family. We also express sincere sorrow to our allied nations, who have been doing and continue to do so much to assist those in need. We have been reviewing the incident at the highest levels to understand the circumstances of what happened and how it happened. We will be opening a probe to examine this serious incident further. This will help us reduce the risk of such an event from occurring again. The incident will be investigated in the Fact Finding and Assessment Mechanism: an independent, professional, and expert body. For the last few months, the IDF has been working closely with the World Central Kitchen to assist them in fulfilling their noble mission of helping bring food and humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. WCK also came to help Israelis after the massacre of October 7th; they were one of the first NGOs here. The work of WCK is critical; they are on the frontlines of humanity. We will get to the bottom of this and share our findings transparently," Hagari said.
Earlier, Hamas announced that the IDF struck a WCK vehicle in the area of Deir al-Balah, in the central part of the Gaza Strip. According to videos from Gaza, there were the World Central Kitchen logos on the roof of the car.
The Hamas-affiliated Palestinian Information Center reported that all the deceased were UN employees involved in the delivery and distribution of humanitarian aid among the civilian population of the enclave.
The Hamas press service issued a statement saying that as a result of the Israeli strike, citizens of the United Kingdom, Poland, Canada/the USA, and Australia were killed. A Palestinian driver also died.
The WCK leadership, commenting on the deaths of five of its employees in Gaza, stated: "This is a tragedy. Humanitarian organization staff and civilians should never be targets."
