April 3, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

An Israeli strike in Gaza that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers has touched off fury and indignation inside the White House, prompting President Joe Biden on Tuesday to release a public statement using a word he has rarely invoked over the course of the tragedy-ridden conflict: “Outraged.”

The deaths of the workers who were delivering food to starving civilians in the besieged enclave — including one dual US-Canadian citizen – has frustrated Biden and his top officials to a new level, a senior administration official told CNN. 

The strike has been a “standout incident” as far as the White House is concerned, the official said, prompting serious consternation and concern in what had already been a moment of high tensions between the US and Israel. 

The president discussed the deaths of the workers with a small group of Muslim community leaders at the White House Tuesday, according to one of the attendee

s. Some of the participants were doctors who had spent time in Gaza and had seen first-hand the plight of the Palestinian civilians there. One of them, CNN reported, walked out of the meeting early in a show of protest.

Asked about Biden blaming Israel for failing to protect civilians and aid workers in his statement, a senior adviser to the president told CNN: “It’s what he wanted to say.”

US President Joe Biden said he is “outraged and heartbroken” after an Israeli air strike in Gaza killed seven aid workers Monday. He admitted the strike was “not a stand-alone incident” and that Israel has “not done enough to protect civilians.”

He wrote that Israel had “pledged to conduct a thorough investigation” into the incident, but that the “investigation must be swift, it must bring accountability, and its findings must be made public.”

“Even more tragically, this is not a stand-alone incident,” Biden wrote.

He said that incidents like this “simply should not happen,” and that “Israel has also not done enough to protect civilians.”

The World Central Kitchen (WCK) shared the identities of the seven aid workers who were killed by an Israeli strike in central Gaza on Monday.

In a post on X on Tuesday, the aid group named the victims:

The IDF said the incident was being investigated and that the strike was a "grave mistake" and that it did not intend to harm the aid workers.

A Palestinian-American doctor walked out of a meeting with US President Joe Biden before it was over Tuesday evening, underscoring the high tensions, anger and concern from Arab, Palestinian and Muslim-American communities around the Israel-Hamas war. 

Dr. Thaer Ahmad, an emergency physician from Chicago who traveled to Gaza earlier this year, told CNN he abruptly left the meeting that included Vice President Kamala Harris, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, other administration officials and a small group of Muslim community leaders.  

Following the meeting, a White House official said in a statement that the president and vice president "know this is a deeply painful moment for many in the Muslim and Arab communities.”

Ahmad traveled to Gaza as part of a delegation of doctors from the NGO MedGlobal, working in the city of Khan Younis as fighting raged around the Al Nasser hospital. He discussed his experience there, citing massive numbers of displaced, injured and dying people, and he spoke out against an expected Israeli offensive in Rafah.

Before he left, he handed Biden a letter from an 8-year-old orphaned girl, Hadeel, who lives in Rafah.  

“I beg you, President Biden, stop them from entering Rafah,” a translation of the letter shared with CNN says. Hadeel is referring to Israel's declared plan to enter the southern Gaza city, which the US has said Israel should not do without a comprehensive plan to protect civilian lives.

Biden told him he understood that he needed to leave, Ahmad said. 

CNN previously reported that what was supposed to be an iftar dinner to break the Ramadan fast was changed to a meeting because participants didn’t feel comfortable having a celebratory meal while hundreds of thousands in Gaza are on the brink of famine.

The Israeli military's top general apologized for an Israeli strike on a World Central Kitchen convoy that killed seven aid workers, calling it “a mistake that followed a misidentification.”

Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said in a video statement Tuesday that the military completed a preliminary debrief and determined it did not intend to kill the aid workers.

He called the strike "a grave mistake," and vowed that the Israel Defense Forces "will continue taking immediate actions to ensure that more is done to protect humanitarian aid workers.

"This incident was a grave mistake. Israel is at war with Hamas, not with the people of Gaza," Halevi added.

Some anti-government protesters Tuesday breached security barriers near the Jerusalem residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to social media videos.

Israeli police said most of the demonstrators behaved lawfully, but noted that some were "disorderly" as they tried to approach Netanyahu's residence. Israeli media reported several arrests.

One video shows a confrontation between police and Ayala Metzger — the daughter-in-law of one of the hostages held in Gaza. Metzger can be seen being wrestled to the ground as police tried to confiscate a megaphone she was carrying.

Another video showed protesters and police struggling over steel barricades. One man crawled beneath a police water cannon vehicle to prevent it from moving.

National Security Minister Ben Gvir criticized the Israeli security services for allowing protesters to get so close to Netanyahus’ residence.

Other protesters marched toward Israeli President Isaac Herzog's residence. 

The United States assesses that Israel carried out the airstrike Monday in Damascus on what Iran has said was a consulate building, deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said on Tuesday.

The Israeli government has not acknowledged carrying out the strike. 

Singh said the Pentagon was "not notified by the Israelis about their strike, or the intended target of their strike, in Damascus." Israel denied the claim that the building hit was a consulate, saying Monday that it was a "military building of Quds forces," which is a unit of the IRGC.

Singh said that she couldn’t confirm what type of building was hit in the strike.  "Again this was not a US strike so I don’t have a lot of details on what type of building that was. But no, we don’t support attacks on diplomatic facilities," she said. 

The top US diplomat marked the start of National Arab American Heritage Month in a statement Tuesday by noting that it comes “at a time of immense pain.”

The Biden administration has come under immense scrutiny domestically, and from members of the US government workforce, for its policy on Israel and the Gaza war.

Blinken said the US is committed to pursuing a deal that would secure the release of hostages still being held in Gaza and allow more humanitarian aid to enter the enclave.

“I value the conversations I have participated in with my Arab American colleagues and with members of the larger Arab American community on US policy in the region. I will continue to seek their counsel as we pursue lasting peace and security in the Middle East,” he said.

President Joe Biden's administration reiterated Tuesday that it was not involved in an airstrike Monday on an Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, that left at least 13 people dead.

Iran and Syria accused Israel of authoring the attack, with Tehran warning of a “serious response,” and the powerful Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah saying the strike will be met with “punishment and revenge.” Iran also said it would hold the United States “answerable” due to its support of Israel.

On Monday, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani responded to the strike, which claimed the life of a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander, Mohammed Reza Zahedi.

"Iran preserves the right to take reciprocal measures and will decide the type of response and punishment against the aggressor," Kanaani said, according to IRGC-affiliated Fars News. 

Some context: The US has accused Iran of supporting proxy attacks on US and Western targets since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. In January, a drone attack killed three American soldiers at a US outpost in Jordan, which the US attributed to the Iran-backed umbrella group Islamic Resistance in Iraq, though the incident caught Tehran by surprise and worried political leadership there, officials told CNN at the time, citing US intelligence.