Family of Pole Killed in Gaza Should Get Compensation from Israel, Poland Says 

Polish World Central Kitchen and aid worker Damian Sobol, who was killed by Israeli airstrike in Gaza, according to the NGO, on April 1, 2024, speaks about water facilities at the roof of WCK, in location given as Gaza, in this still image taken from a social media video released March 2, 2024 and obtained by Reuters on April 2, 2024. (World Central Kitchen/Handout via Reuters)
Polish World Central Kitchen and aid worker Damian Sobol, who was killed by Israeli airstrike in Gaza, according to the NGO, on April 1, 2024, speaks about water facilities at the roof of WCK, in location given as Gaza, in this still image taken from a social media video released March 2, 2024 and obtained by Reuters on April 2, 2024. (World Central Kitchen/Handout via Reuters)
TT

Family of Pole Killed in Gaza Should Get Compensation from Israel, Poland Says 

Polish World Central Kitchen and aid worker Damian Sobol, who was killed by Israeli airstrike in Gaza, according to the NGO, on April 1, 2024, speaks about water facilities at the roof of WCK, in location given as Gaza, in this still image taken from a social media video released March 2, 2024 and obtained by Reuters on April 2, 2024. (World Central Kitchen/Handout via Reuters)
Polish World Central Kitchen and aid worker Damian Sobol, who was killed by Israeli airstrike in Gaza, according to the NGO, on April 1, 2024, speaks about water facilities at the roof of WCK, in location given as Gaza, in this still image taken from a social media video released March 2, 2024 and obtained by Reuters on April 2, 2024. (World Central Kitchen/Handout via Reuters)

Israel should apologize and pay compensation to the family of a Polish national who was among seven aid workers killed in an airstrike in Gaza, Poland's prime minister and president said on Thursday.

Citizens from Australia, Britain and Poland were among seven people working for celebrity chef Jose Andres' World Central Kitchen who were killed in an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza on Monday, the NGO said.

Damian Sobol, 35, was a relief worker and lived in the city of Przemysl, in southeastern Poland, according to the city's mayor Wojciech Bakun.

"We will expect... an immediate explanation of the circumstances and compensation for the victims' relatives," Prime Minister Donald Tusk told a news conference.

President Andrzej Duda joined his call for an apology, compensation and investigation from Israel, while also criticizing Israel's ambassador to Poland for his comments after the incident.

Ambassador Yacov Livne said in a post on social media platform X on Tuesday that the "extreme right and left" in Poland were accusing Israel of intentional murder, adding that "antisemites will always remain antisemites".

"The authorities in Israel speak in a very subdued and sensitive manner. Unfortunately, their ambassador in Poland is unable to maintain such delicacy and this is unacceptable," Duda said during a televised speech on NATO's anniversary.

"Today Mr. Ambassador is making these relations very difficult. This is my assessment."

The Polish foreign ministry has summoned the ambassador for Friday.

Israel did not have an ambassador in Poland for months under the previous government due to a row over Holocaust education trips for Israeli students to Poland. He was reinstated last year.



Bangladesh Says Student Leaders Held for Their Own Safety

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
TT

Bangladesh Says Student Leaders Held for Their Own Safety

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)

Bangladesh said three student leaders had been taken into custody for their own safety after the government blamed their protests against civil service job quotas for days of deadly nationwide unrest.

Students Against Discrimination head Nahid Islam and two other senior members of the protest group were Friday forcibly discharged from hospital and taken away by a group of plainclothes detectives.

The street rallies organized by the trio precipitated a police crackdown and days of running clashes between officers and protesters that killed at least 201 people, according to an AFP tally of hospital and police data.

Islam earlier this week told AFP he was being treated at the hospital in the capital Dhaka for injuries sustained during an earlier round of police detention.

Police had initially denied that Islam and his two colleagues were taken into custody before home minister Asaduzzaman Khan confirmed it to reporters late on Friday.

"They themselves were feeling insecure. They think that some people were threatening them," he said.

"That's why we think for their own security they needed to be interrogated to find out who was threatening them. After the interrogation, we will take the next course of action."

Khan did not confirm whether the trio had been formally arrested.

Days of mayhem last week saw the torching of government buildings and police posts in Dhaka, and fierce street fights between protesters and riot police elsewhere in the country.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government deployed troops, instituted a nationwide internet blackout and imposed a curfew to restore order.

- 'Carried out raids' -

The unrest began when police and pro-government student groups attacked street rallies organized by Students Against Discrimination that had remained largely peaceful before last week.

Islam, 26, the chief coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, told AFP from his hospital bed on Monday that he feared for his life.

He said that two days beforehand, a group of people identifying themselves as police detectives blindfolded and handcuffed him and took him to an unknown location to be tortured before he was released the next morning.

His colleague Asif Mahmud, also taken into custody at the hospital on Friday, told AFP earlier that he had also been detained by police and beaten at the height of last week's unrest.

Police have arrested at least 4,500 people since the unrest began.

"We've carried out raids in the capital and we will continue the raids until the perpetrators are arrested," Dhaka Metropolitan Police joint commissioner Biplob Kumar Sarker told AFP.

"We're not arresting general students, only those who vandalized government properties and set them on fire."