Loss of life, especially of those who are trying to help at the humanitarian front is completely unacceptable, Cyprus’ Foreign Minister, Constantinos Kombos, said on Tuesday as regards the deaths of seven members of the team of the World Central Kitchen in Gaza, adding that the incident should be ‘fully investigated’.
In his statements, after a meeting in Nicosia with his Hungarian counterpart, Péter Szijjártó, Kombos expressed his ‘sincere and deep condolences’ for the deaths of the World Central Kitchen team members, who, he said, died while they were trying to help the people on the ground, noting that ‘they paid a heavy price for that.’
‘This is extremely saddening for Cyprus that has been working with WCK, and we know the pain this is causing to them and their families and we are sending our genuine and heartfelt condolences,’ he said.
All the issues relating to the circumstances should be fully investigated, Kombos said, adding that, ‘we have to be absolutely clear, that the loss of life, especially
of those who are trying to help, at the humanitarian front is completely unacceptable and should be fully explored as to why it happened and there should be accountability as well.’
Asked by journalists whether this would affect Cyprus’ Amalthea project, and what the next steps were, Kombos said that everyone was looking into the details of what happened and that the Republic of Cyprus has been in touch with World Central Kitchen at all levels, with the Israeli side, the United Arab Emirates, and the Americans.
It seems, he said, that the incident took place 12 kilometers from the landing zone and the point of offloading of the aid, when the victims were finishing their shift at the warehouse and were on their way to their homes.
‘We don’t know exactly why this happened, how it happened, what was the rationale, whether it’s a mistake or not, these are what we are trying to identify, but as you can understand, at this time, we are thinking about the victims, we are thinking about WCK,’ Kombos said. He added
that WCK will be freezing their operations out of respect to the victims and, in order to review the security protocol and what actually took place.
As far as Cyprus is concerned, he said, ‘we have created this (humanitarian corridor) to be in a position to offer to the people that are suffering an option.’ ‘Our system here has worked according to plan, the transfer has worked according to plan, the offloading as well,’ he said, adding that the incident took place outside the landing zone in what is however a safe, de-conflicted area, ‘and there are questions to be answered from the Israeli side as well.’
Szijjártó, asked by journalists to comment, he said that Hungarians had ‘a very clear position’ in this regard, that the success of the anti-terror operation must not only be an Israeli interest but the interest of the entire international community, ‘because we must not let a terrorist organisation win.’ ‘But in the meantime, of course, the operations have to be conducted in a way that the civilian popula
tion is being protected and we do believe that humanitarian aid, to arrive where it is needed, is an important part of helping the civilian population to be protected as well’, he said.
Source: Cyprus News Agency