The Times of Israel is liveblogging Wednesday’s events as they unfold.
Police identify suspect in Kochav Yair ramming attack as 26-year-old from nearby Arab town
Police identify the suspect in the overnight ramming attack targeting police officers at a checkpoint near Kochav Ya’ir as a 26-year-old resident of the neighboring Arab Israeli town of Tira. He was not immediately named.
He first struck four officers at a checkpoint near the Kochav Yair Junction, which is near the Green Line before proceeding to the nearby Eliyahu Crossing that divides between Israel and the West Bank. There he attempted to stab security guards operating the checkpoint who managed to shoot him. He was pronounced dead at the scene, police said, adding that they have already determined that the attacker had acted alone.
The officers hit by the suspect near Kochav Yair had been operating a flying checkpoint aimed at preventing car theft, police added, clarifying that the incident was still being probed as a terror attack and not a criminal case.
‘We are sorry’: IDF chief says ‘misidentification’ led to strike on aid convoy
IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi issues an apology for last night’s deadly Israeli strike on an aid convoy in Gaza, adding that it was a result of a “misidentification,” which was being investigated and learned from.
“Last night, seven employees of the World Central Kitchen were killed,” Halevi says in a video statement — his first response to the strike that killed seven WCK workers.
“WCK is an organization whose people work across the globe, including in Israel to do good in difficult conditions. The IDF works together closely with the World Central Kitchen and greatly appreciates the important work that they do.”
He says that the IDF has already completed its preliminary probe into the strike and that the findings were shared with him at the IDF’s Southern Command base.
“It was a mistake that followed a misidentification, at night, during a war, in very complex conditions. It shouldn’t have happened,” Halevi clarified, adding that there was no “intention of harming WCK aid workers.”
“I want to be very clear—the strike was not carried out with the intention of harming WCK aid workers. It was a mistake that followed a misidentification—at night during a war in very complex conditions. It shouldn’t have happened.”
Watch the full statement by IDF Chief of the… pic.twitter.com/JnvoJOTVg9
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) April 2, 2024
The IDF has established a new humanitarian command center “to improve the way we coordinate aid distribution in Gaza,” the army chief says. “We will continue taking immediate actions to ensure that more is done to protect humanitarian aid workers.”
An “independent” body will also investigate the incident and will present its findings in the coming days, Halevi says, adding that the IDF will immediately implement its conclusions and share them with the WCK along with other relevant international organizations.
“This incident was a grave mistake. Israel is at war with Hamas, not with the people of Gaza,” Halevi asserts.
“We are sorry for the unintentional harm to the members of WCK. We share in the grief of their families as well as the entire World Central Kitchen organization from the bottom of our hearts.”
“We see great importance in the continued delivery of humanitarian aid, and we will keep working to facilitate this vital effort,” he adds in an apparent plea aimed at convincing aid groups not to abandon Israel shortly after WCK suspended its operations in Gaza.
US denies involvement, foreknowledge of alleged Israeli strike on Iranians in Syria
White House national security spokesman John Kirby dismisses Iranian charges of US responsibility for an alleged Israeli bombing of an Iranian mission in Damascus as “nonsense,” and warns that Washington will respond to any retaliatory attacks.
“Let me make it clear. We had nothing to do with the strike in Damascus,” he tells a press conference. “We weren’t involved in any way.”
Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh says Israel provided no advance warning of the strike on the Iranian mission in the Syrian capital.
“We were not notified by the Israelis about their strike or the intended target of their strike in Damascus,” Singh says at a briefing, adding that Iran had been privately told the US was not behind the strike.
Shortly before the attack, Israel notified the US that it would be operating in Syria, but used vague language that did not identify a target, two officials say on condition of anonymity.
Israel “did not include any details on who they were targeting or where it would be conducted, and the strike was already under way before word could be passed through the US government,” says one official.