ISRAEL has agreed to open three humanitarian routes into Gaza.
The Erez Gate in northern Gaza will reopen temporarily, for the first time since the bloody Israel-Hamas war began in October last year.
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Ashdod Port will be opened for humanitarian deliveries, and more aid will be allowed to enter via the Kerem Shalom Crossing from Jordan.
The decision comes hours after US President Joe Biden warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the situation in the besieged enclave is “unacceptable”.
The re-opening of the corridors was understood to have been specifically requested by Mr Biden, BBC reports.
During an hour-long phone call on Thursday, the US president also demanded that Netanyahu push for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Read more on the Gaza strike
The heated conversation followed the deaths of seven aid workers – including three Brits – who were killed by an “unintentional” airstrike in Gaza on Monday night.
An Israeli air force squadron known as “Black Snake” is thought to have blitzed the convoy of World Central Kitchen charity workers, who were delivering food aid to starving Palestinians in Gaza.
The British victims included former SBS hero John Chapman, 57, ex-Royal Marine James Henderson, 33, and ex-Rifleman James Kirby, 47.
An Australian, a Pole, an American Palestinian, and a Canadian-Palestinian were also killed.
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Mr Biden warned Netanyahu on Thursday that Israel could lose US support if civilians continue to get hurt and killed, as the White House stipulated it wanted to see changes within “hours and days”.
In a read-out of the phone conversation, the White House said: “President Biden emphasised that the strikes on humanitarian workers and the overall humanitarian situation are unacceptable.
“He made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers.
“He made clear that US policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps.”
Israel has insisted the deadly strike on the aid convoy was a “grave mistake” and the result of “misidentification”.
On Wednesday, UK PM Rishi Sunak paid tribute to the three “brave Brits” who were killed in Gaza and called for a “transparent independent investigation” into their deaths.
He said: “I spoke to Prime Minister Netanyahu last night and I was very clear with him that the situation is increasingly intolerable and what we urgently need to see is a thorough, transparent investigation into what happened.
“But also a dramatic increase in the amount of aid getting into Gaza, removing the barriers.
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“Also, closer work with aid agencies so that things like this don’t happen again.”
He said that while Britain supported “Israel’s right” to flush out Hamas terrorists, more aid must be allowed into Gaza.
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Israel issues grovelling apology for killing 3 Brits
ISRAEL’S highest-ranking officer has apologised after his forces killed seven aid workers including three Brits in a huge war blunder.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi insisted the bombing of the World Central Kitchen (WCK) workers was a “grave mistake” – adding it was the result of “misidentification”.
Halevi insisted: “Israel is at war with Hamas, not the people of Gaza.”
Halevi said the strike happened in “complex conditions” – but offered no further insight.
He said: “This incident was a grave mistake.
“I want to be very clear – the strike was not carried out with the intention of harming WCK aid workers.
He added: “We will continue taking immediate actions to ensure that more is done to protect humanitarian aid workers.”
Along with three Brits killed, the other victims were Polish, Australian, a Palestinian driver and a dual US-Canadian citizen.
They were in a deconflicted zone and had informed the IDF of their movements so should have been safe.
But shortly after setting off from an aid warehouse in the Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, they were hit on the coastal Al Rashid road.
Israeli media said an IDF unit believed they had seen an armed figure entering the warehouse.
Suspecting Hamas terrorists were using the convoy as cover, they fired on the WCK cars — two armoured and one soft-skin vehicle.
One of the victims of the strike, dad-of-two John Chapman, was last night described as a “very popular bloke”.
The Special Forces hero, from Poole, had been in Gaza only a few weeks after stints in the Middle East.
A former comrade paid tribute yesterday, saying: “He was a very well-liked guy, a very popular bloke and this is a huge loss for his family, his friends and for the veteran community.
“People trying to deliver aid into Gaza are doing the right thing and they need support and protection from people like John and his colleagues to do their job.”
A friend of Mr Henderson, of Truro, Cornwall, said: “Everybody is gutted, he was a lovely lad. He’d been there a few weeks.”
The three Brits worked for security firm Solace Global and were delivering food for US-based aid agency WCK.
The charity has worked worldwide, including in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion in 2022.
It has been active in Gaza since Israel declared war on Hamas after the terror group slaughtered more than 1,110 people on October 7.
WCK says it has served around 240,000 meals a day — a total of 42 million — and have been central in establishing a maritime aid corridor between Cyprus and Gaza.
The hostilities have meant aid has struggled to reach Palestinians by land, so WCK and Cypriot authorities last month established the first aid delivery by sea.
A second convoy of three ships carrying 400 tons of aid landed on Monday, with the IDF involved in coordinating the delivery.
The WCK vehicles were in the process of transporting that aid to 1.7 million Palestinians forced from their homes by war.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society recovered the bodies of the aid workers and transported them to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.
Source: Sun
