Poland says aid worker's killing in Gaza should be brought before Israeli court
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s government said Friday that the killing of a Polish aid worker by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza was “murder” and demands support from Israel in its own investigation and for the case to be brought before an independent court in Israel.
Poland’s deputy foreign minister, Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski, was addressing lawmakers in parliament on the April 1 death of Damian Soból, 35, and six other workers of the World Central Kitchen charity, who were bringing food to the needy in Gaza.
He called the killings “shocking and disturbing” and said Poland expects Israel's “full cooperation” in the murder investigation opened by Polish prosecutors in Przemyśl, Soból's hometown.
In the debate in parliament, many lawmakers said the killings should be considered a war crime.
Bartoszewski said Poland was working with other countries whose citizens were killed in the shelling — Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States — to jointly press for a detailed investigation into how cars marked as humanitarian convoy could have become targets of repeated shelling by the Israeli army.
He stressed that all international rule of defense were violated by that attack.
He said that the dismissals and disciplinary measures applied to the officers responsible for the killings were “inadequate” and demanded that the case be tried by an independent court in Israel.
He stressed that Poland is also demanding compensation to Soból’s family. Soból’s body has been brought to Poland, Bartoszewski said.