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There is international condemnation and calls for an urgent investigation after and Israeli air attack killed seven aid workers – six foreign nationals and a Palestinian – in Gaza on Monday night.

US-based aid group World Central Kitchen says the foreign aid workers killed in the “targeted Israeli strike” were nationals from Australia, Poland and the UK, as well as a US-Canadian citizen. Israel has confirmed that its forces killed seven aid workers as they travelled in a convoy emblazoned with the charity organisation’s logo that had coordinated its movements with the Israeli military.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu merely described the horrible attack on the aid workers as unintended and “tragic” and pledged an independent inquiry.

WCK, which was founded by celebrity chef Jose Andres, said they had been travelling in two armoured cars and another vehicle. The convoy was hit as it was leaving its Deir el-Balah warehouse after unloading more than 100 tonnes of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza by sea.

At least 32 916 Palestinians have been killed and 75 494 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7.

Last week, the International Court of Justice issued new provisional measures as part of the genocide case brought by South Africa ordering Israel to take all necessary and effective action to ensure basic food supplies can reach the civilian population in Gaza to halt spreading famine.

In a recent statement, Palestine Ambassador to Zimbabwe Dr Tamer Almassri, said Israel was deliberately breaching international law by besieging the only partially working medical facilities in Gaza, the Al-Shifa, Al Amal and Nasser hospitals.

“The once working hospital has transformed into a battlefield that resembles a ghoul with Israel terrorising, kidnapping and killing medical staff and patients,” he said.

“All hospitals in Gaza are hanging by a thread due to the chronic shortage of essential medical supplies caused by Israel’s ongoing blockade on aid delivery as well as indiscriminate bombings.

“A particularly gruesome aspect of the latest raids on hospitals includes Israeli forces’ practice of separating Palestinian men of all ages from their families and then subjecting them to all forms of humiliation, torture and extra judicial killings. International law is clear: patients, health workers, and civilians must be protected.”

Ambassador Almassri said Israel also used captured Palestinian men as human shields, both inside the hospital and outside while nurses were forced at gunpoint to guide Israeli soldiers through several rooms of the hospital and also positioned around Israeli tanks as human shields.

While welcoming the passing of a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip that leads to a permanent and sustainable ceasefire, Ambassador Almassri called for the immediate implementation of the resolution to preserve the lives of innocent civilians.

Hunger and malnutrition continue to haunt the population of Gaza, especially those remaining in the north.

He called on the international community to coordinate efforts to deliver humanitarian, relief and medical aid to the entire Gaza Strip via all crossings to put an end to the famine inflicted upon Palestinians as a result of “the ongoing savage aggression”. – Herald Reporter/ Al Jazeera