British aid worker killed in Gaza will be remembered as a hero, say family

We have known for some time there have been tensions and frustrations within the US-Israel relationship, which is so crucial to events that have taken place in the Middle East.

These frustrations have been very much on show overnight.

US President Joe Biden put out a statement saying he was “outraged” and “heartbroken” at the killing of the seven humanitarian workers from World Central Kitchen, that Israel has admitted it was responsible for.

But he also said, very specifically, not just what all other world leaders said – that there should be an investigation, that it should be swift, that there should be accountability and the findings should be should be public.

Biden said this is not a standalone incident and that this conflict has been one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have been killed.

This is a major reason why distributing aid in Gaza has been so difficult, because Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers.

What is so significant about this is it’s a demonstration of the allies becoming increasingly concerned by way Israel is prosecuting its war.

The UN secretary general Antonio Guterres echoed this on the floor of the UN General Assembly last night, saying that what had happened was an “inevitable result of the way the war was being conducted”.

In other words, regardless of the actual findings of any investigation, what Biden is suggesting, what the UN leader is suggesting, is just the nature of the way Israel is behaving militarily on the battlefield is a way they are becoming unhappy with.