Germany, Poland Say Israel Must Investigate Strike On Aid Workers

People gather around the remains of a car used by US-based aid group World Central Kitchen, that was hit by an Israeli strike the previous day in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on April 2, 2024. (AFP)
People gather around the remains of a car used by US-based aid group World Central Kitchen, that was hit by an Israeli strike the previous day in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on April 2, 2024. (AFP)
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Germany, Poland Say Israel Must Investigate Strike On Aid Workers

People gather around the remains of a car used by US-based aid group World Central Kitchen, that was hit by an Israeli strike the previous day in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on April 2, 2024. (AFP)
People gather around the remains of a car used by US-based aid group World Central Kitchen, that was hit by an Israeli strike the previous day in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on April 2, 2024. (AFP)

Germany on Tuesday urged Israel to carry out a full probe into a strike in the Gaza Strip that killed seven staff from US-based charity World Central Kitchen.

"The Israeli government must investigate this terrible incident quickly and thoroughly," Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Also, Poland's deputy foreign minister Andrzej Szejna said that Israel should "compensate" the families of the seven aid workers, including a Polish citizen, killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza.

"The authorities should think about who should be held criminally responsible for pressing a certain button and how to compensate the families of the victims -- even if it's impossible to do so with money," Szejna told Radio Zet.

Israel's army acknowledged on Wednesday it committed a "grave mistake" when it killed seven aid workers from the US charity in an airstrike in Gaza.

"This incident was a grave mistake," Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said in a video message posted on social media platform X.

He blamed "a misidentification -- at night during a war in very complex conditions".

"It shouldn't have happened," he added.

Seven staff from US-based food aid charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) were killed when a strike hit their convoy in the Gazan town of Deir al-Balah on Monday.

According to the organization, those killed included Australian, British, Palestinian, Polish and US-Canadian staff.

Since the start of the war, the NGO has been involved in humanitarian operations in Gaza, and was one of two groups spearheading efforts to deliver food aid arriving by sea from Cyprus.

The group said it was suspending its operations in the region following the strike.



Iran Police Commander Dismissed After Death in Custody

A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)
A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)
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Iran Police Commander Dismissed After Death in Custody

A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)
A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)

Iran's police force has dismissed the commander of a city in the northern province of Gilan after the death in custody of a detainee, state media said on Saturday.

Mohammad Mir Mousavi, 36, was arrested on July 22 after being involved in a fight in Lahijan, police said in a statement carried by the official news agency IRNA.

"The police commander... was dismissed due to insufficient oversight of the conduct and behaviour of staff," the police said, AFP reported.

"Due to the complexity of the matter, the final conclusion on the cause of Mohammad Mir Mousavi's death depends on the medical examiner's final report.

The police said the station commander and several officers involved in the incident had been suspended.

"The behaviour of some law enforcement officers was against the professional policy of the police and that is not acceptable in any way, so they were referred to the judicial authority," the statement added.

The Norway-based Kurdish human rights organization, Hengaw, on Wednesday said Mir Mousavi "was killed under torture in the detention center".

On Thursday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian ordered an investigation into the case.

Dismissals of members of the security forces are rare in Iran.

In 2022, the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman who had been arrested in Tehran for an alleged breach of the country's strict dress code for women, sparked months of deadly nationwide protests.