West should take action over Israel’s attack on aid workers, says Bangladesh FM Mahmud
The foreign minister also called on the West to stop supplying weapons to Israel after the attack
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Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud says he hopes Western countries will take action against Israel for the attack on aid workers during its ongoing assault on Gaza.
“I hope that, after yesterday’s incident, in which three British citizens were killed, the Western world will come to its senses and it will take action against Israel,” he said in response to questions from the media at the Jatiya Press Club on Thursday.
Seven workers of the charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) were killed in an Israeli air strike in central Gaza on Monday.
Among the dead were a Polish citizen, three UK citizens, an Australian, a US-Canadian joint citizen, and a Palestinian.
The WCK says its convoy was attacked and its workers killed after they had dropped off over 100 tonnes of food brought by sea at a warehouse in Deir al-Balah.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged the attack. In a video message on Tuesday, he called the incident ‘unintentional’. Israeli President Isaac Herzog has also apologised for the deaths.
“What happened in Gaza is a crime against humanity,” Mahmud said. “Israel’s barbarism, cruelty, and mass killing are not ending. And yesterday, aid workers were killed. It’s beyond imagining.”
“You know that a few days ago the UN Security Council passed a resolution for a ceasefire; they are not heeding that proposal either.”
The foreign minister said, “Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her government are always against any war. Bangladesh is, always has been, and always will support its Palestinian brothers.”
He reiterated Bangladesh’s support for a two-state solution to the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict.
“We think that peace lies in the establishment of an independent Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders and the establishment of East Jerusalem as its capital. Otherwise, there will never be peace in that region.”
He said that, without those borders for a Palestinian state, the solution is not sustainable.
Mahmud also called for Western countries to stop providing arms to Israel.
“We hope that the weapons being supplied to Israel – the weapons being used to kill innocent women and children, being used against ordinary people, even against aid workers from the Western world – we hope that the supply of weapons to Israel will stop.