Bodies of aid workers killed in Gaza transferred to Egypt

The bodies of foreign aid workers killed in an Israeli bombing in the Gaza Strip were transferred to Egypt's Rafah border crossing, an Egyptian broadcaster reported on Wednesday, as Israel's allies kept up their demands for explanations.

State-linked al-Qahera News TV said ambulances carrying the bodies of a number of the relief workers arrived at the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing near Gaza.

Seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) employees were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip on Monday as they were returning from a full day's mission.

They were three Britons, one Australian, one Polish national, a US-Canadian dual citizen and a Palestinian man.

The six bodies of the foreign aid workers were transferred by the Palestinian Red Crescent to the Egyptian Rafah crossing, an Egyptian security source said.

The bodies will be flown home after they are received by representatives of their respective embassies in Cairo, the source added. The transfer is to take place via Cairo airport.

Israel is facing mounting outrage over the killing of the aid workers as they delivered food to war-ravaged Gaza.

Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces Herzi Halevi said the workers were killed due to "misidentification" issue, citing a preliminary investigation into the events.

The WCK employees were travelling in a deconflicted zone in two armoured cars branded with the WCK logo, the US-based aid organization set up by US-Spanish restaurateur José Andrés said.

Despite coordinating movements with the IDF, the convoy was hit as it was leaving a warehouse in Deir al-Balah, WCK said.

"I want to be very clear, the strike was not carried out with the intention of harming WCK aid workers," Halevi said.

"It was a mistake that followed a misidentification, at night during a war in very complex conditions," Halevi continued. "It shouldn't have happened."

"This incident was a grave mistake," he added. "We are sorry for the unintentional harm to the members of the WCK."

Halevi said that an independent body would investigate the incident which would be completed in the coming days and its findings shared with the WCK and other international organizations.

Leaders worldwide have condemned the deaths, while the delivery of food and supplies by ship was temporarily halted after the strike despite the growing desperation in Gaza, with famine looming.

Poland's Foreign Ministry called in the Israeli ambassador Yacov Livne as tensions flared. Polish citizen Damian Sobol was one of those killed in the strike.

Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Szejna said the "new situation in Polish-Israeli relations and the moral, political and financial responsibility" for the incident would be discussed with the ambassador.

"Prime Minister Netanyahu, Ambassador Livne, the vast majority of Poles showed solidarity with Israel after the Hamas attack," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "You are putting this solidarity to the test. The tragic attack on the volunteers and your reaction arouse understandable anger."

US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday he was "outraged and heartbroken" by the deaths and demanded a swift investigation.

On Wednesday, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the Biden administration was frustrated by the actions of the Israeli military.

"Every single day we're talking about the way this war is prosecuted. And it's important to us. It matters how they do this," he said.

"It's not the first time that this has happened. And so yes, we're frustrated by this," Kirby said.

The UN says that some 200 humanitarian workers, most of them Palestinians, have been killed in Gaza since October 7.

The war was triggered by the unprecedented massacre of more than 1,200 people by the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement and other extremist groups.

Israel's overwhelming military response has come under fire, given the soaring number of civilian casualties and catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza. Israel has vowed to eliminate Hamas from Gaza.

Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported that strike was launched because of a suspicion that a terrorist was travelling with the World Central Kitchen convoy. But the target had not left the warehouse with the vehicles, Haaretz said.

One of the military sources told Haaretz: "It's frustrating. We're trying our hardest to accurately hit terrorists, and utilizing every thread of intelligence, and in the end the units in the field decide to launch attacks without any preparation, in cases that have nothing to do with protecting our forces."

While the IDF claimed that the deaths resulted from poor coordination, the anonymous Haaretz source in the intelligence branch said the command "knows exactly what the cause of the attack was - in Gaza, everyone does as he pleases."