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Samantha Power, who leads the U.S. Agency for International Development, has called the deaths of seven aid agency workers in an Israeli airstrike “devastating and deeply alarming.”
They “were there to do one thing — to help get food to desperate, starving people,” she said in a statement late yesterday. “Their deaths, and the deaths of more than 30,000 Palestinians and 200 humanitarian workers in this conflict, are devastating and deeply alarming.”
She said Israel’s investigation into the killings “must be swift, it must bring accountability, and its findings must be made public.” And that Israel “must do far more to protect aid workers and protect civilians from the unacceptable levels of casualties they continue to experience as a result of IDF military operations.” Power gave her “deepest condolences to the families, friends, and colleagues of those killed.”
The U.S., which has been criticized for verbally censuring Israel without leveraging its financial and diplomatic support of the country, “will continue to do all we can to deliver humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” Power added, “but the government of Israel and the IDF must do much more to facilitate this work.”
