By Simon Lewis and John Irish
PARIS (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday said Washington has urged Israel to carry out a swift, thorough and impartial investigation into an Israeli airstrike that killed seven people working for the World Central Kitchen charity in Gaza.
Blinken arrived in Paris for talks with senior officials including President Emmanuel Macron just hours after the Washington-based NGO was struck by an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza, adding pressure on Washington to toughen its stance in the war between Israel and Hamas.
“We’ve spoken directly to the Israeli government about this particular incident. We’ve urged a swift, a thorough and impartial investigation,” Blinken told reporters at a press conference in Paris, adding that humanitarian workers have to be protected.
“These people are heroes, they run into the fire, not away from it,” he said of the NGO workers killed in the strike. “We shouldn’t have a situation where people who are simply trying to help their fellow human beings are themselves at grave risk.”
Blinken stopped short of directly condemning the attack, unlike his French counterpart Stephane Sejourne.
Speaking alongside Blinken, Sejourne expressed France’s “firm condemnation” of the Israeli airstrike.
“Nothing can justify such a tragedy,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the airstrike was unintended and “tragic”, and the military pledged an independent inquiry.
Blinken will also hold talks with Macron later in the day.
“You can sense the Americans are a bit uncomfortable at the moment,” said one French diplomat, pointing to the contrast between Washington’s humanitarian efforts in Gaza and its supply of weapons to Israel.
Earlier in the day, Blinken said Ukraine was at a “critical moment” in its war with Russia and urgently needs more Western support, bemoaning the stalemate in Congress over a multi-billion dollar military package for Kyiv.
“It is absolutely essential to get Ukrainians what they continue to need to defend themselves, particularly when it comes to munitions and air defences,” he told reporters.
“It’s another reason why the supplementary budget request that President (Joe) Biden has made to (the U.S.) Congress must be fulfilled as quickly as possible.”
Biden has urged the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives to endorse the military and financial aid package, but House Speaker Mike Johnson has held up the matter for months, citing domestic priorities.
(Additional reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten and Sudip Kar Gupta; Writing by John Irish and Ingrid Melander; Editing by Gareth Jones, William Maclean)
