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Israel may pay compensation to killed aid workers’ families |
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The Israeli government may offer to pay compensation to the family of Australian Zomi Frankcom and the other aid workers who died in an airstrike in Gaza. Citing reports that “the convoy was deliberately attacked because it was supposed to contain a terrorist”, Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski called for Israel to “apologise and pay compensation to the families of the victims”. Polish man Damian Sobol was among the seven World Central Kitchen charity workers killed in the strike, which Israel claims was a result of “misidentification”. Britain’s Daily Telegraph reported that Israel is expected to offer compensation, but the Israeli government has not confirmed this. |
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese strengthened his criticism of Israel yesterday, saying the attack constitutes a clear violation of international law and it is not good enough to dismiss it as a tragic wartime accident. The opposition has been less critical of Israel, with foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham telling the ABC: “This is a war situation and tragedies are occurring all the time.” Nationals leader David Littleproud said it is important to remember that Israel is responding to Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attacks, and told Sky News: “If that happened here in Australia, then Australian citizens would expect us to eradicate the terrorist threat.” |
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It comes as US President Joe Biden warned Benjamin Netanyahu that America’s support for the war in Gaza is dependent on whether Israel can limit the killing of innocent civilians and bring more aid to starving people. In his first phone call to the Israeli prime minister since the aid workers were killed, Biden said he wanted Israel to take “specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm” or the US would reassess its policy on the war against Hamas, which centres on supplying weapons to Israel. |
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Meanwhile, Labor MP Julian Hill has called for the Australian Tax Office and charities commission to urgently address reports that some Australian individuals and non-profit organisations are funding “Israel’s illegal settlements regime” in the occupied West Bank and claiming tax deductions for doing so. Several nations including the US, Britain and New Zealand have recently imposed sanctions and travel restrictions on extremist Israeli settlers in the West Bank, but the Albanese government has so far declined to do so. |
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