2024-04-02 14:00 update: 2024-04-03, 12:12
Photo EPA/MOHAMMED SABER
Radoslaw Sikorski, the Polish foreign minister, has called on his Israeli counterpart, to launch an impartial inquiry into the attack on a humanitarian convoy in the Gaza Strip that killed a Polish citizen, a Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman has said.
Israel has accepted responsibility for the attack.
Sikorski held a phone conversation about the incident with Israel Katz on Tuesday afternoon, Pawel Wronski said on Tuesday afternoon.
Damian Sobol was among seven people working for the World Central Kitchen food charity who were killed in the attack by Israeli forces on Monday.
"Having said that an inquiry had already been launched by a prosecutor's office in Poland, Minister Sikorski added that the incident should be investigated as a criminal case," Wronski said, adding that the minister had been told that "an investigation by Israel will be conducted in an independent manner."
The conversation, Wronski continued, lasted eight minutes, and that it was "an exchange of views, rather an official one." He added that it took place after the Israeli side confirmed that it had carried out the attack in which the Pole had been killed.
According to Wronski, Katz "has conveyed his condolences to the Polish government, the Polish people and to the family of the Polish volunteer, who died in the attack."
Wronski added that Katz had assured his Polish counterpart that the incident would be explained.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Polish Foreign Ministry expressed its condolences to Sobol’s family in a post on the X platform.
"We send our condolences to the family of the Polish volunteer, who provided help to the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip," it wrote.
"Poland refuses to accept the failure to abide to international humanitarian law and to provide a lack of protection to civilians, including humanitarian workers."
Posting on the X platform earlier on Tuesday, Sikorski, said: "I personally asked Yacov Livne, the Israeli ambassador (in Poland - PAP) for an urgent explanation. He assured me that Poland will soon receive the results of the investigation of this tragedy.
"I would also like to express condolences to the family of our brave volunteer as well as of all the civilian victims in the Gaza Strip," Sikorski wrote.
The Polish president, Andrzej Duda, also commented on the incident, writing on X: "With great pain I received the news of the death of the volunteers from the World Central Kitchen organisation and among them, of a Polish citizen. My thoughts are with their families. These courageous people were making the world a better place with their service and dedication," Duda wrote.
"This tragedy should never have happened and must be explained," he added.
The World Central Kitchen (WCK) issued a statement in which it announced that its workers died on Monday while delivering desperately needed food aid to Gaza.
"World Central Kitchen is devastated to confirm seven members of our team have been killed in an IDF (Israel Defence Forces - PAP) strike in Gaza," WCK said in a statement on its website.
Apart from the Pole, the attack also killed Australian and British citizens, one person with a US-Canadian citizenship as well as a Palestinian driver.
Commenting on the news, the Israel Defence Forces said they were conducting a thorough review at the highest levels to clarify the circumstances of what happened, which they described as a tragic incident. (PAP)
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