Israeli government spokeswoman Tal Heinrich was put in the hot seat over strikes on an aid convoy run by the charity group World Central Kitchen that resulted in the death of seven of its workers late Monday night, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Heinrich denied accusations from WCK founder José Andrés that the aid workers were "targeted deliberately" while trying to deliver food to Palestinians in Gaza amid the ongoing war, insisting those claims are erroneous during a Thursday interview.
"Well, we're not targeting humanitarians," she told NewsNation host Dan Abrams. "We're not targeting civilians. All we care about in this war is going after Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. We want to eliminate this terrorist organization."
The vehicles were marked with the World Central Kitchen logo, fueling backlash and claims that the killings were indiscriminate.
"What happened is very, very tragic indeed. We will draw the right lessons from it and implement it," Heinrich explained, noting an investigation is in progress "as the defense minister and the prime minister have ordered, the findings of which will be made public."
When he pressed for a timeline, she predicted it would be a matter of days. Abrams went on to grill her about the incident, and whether or not there will be an apology.
"Israel's position is it was a mistake, but that it was still obviously intentionally hit," the Mediaite founder continued. "But José Andrés is saying that he thinks that it may have been based on things he's said about [Prime Minister] Netanyahu."
Heinrich insisted that was not accurate, restating that it was a tragic incident while noting it is important to remember that Israel has accepted responsibility for wrongdoing even when it is "the most painful truth to admit."
"Israel has gone to unprecedented lengths in the history of modern urban warfare to safeguard civilians," she said. "We greatly appreciate the work that these aid workers are doing on the ground."
Abrams fired back that this incident feels "a little different," telling the Israeli government they "went after this convoy by mistake, but it was targeted."
He then played a clip of an interview with Israeli government spokesman David Mencer refusing to apologize for the incident during a chat with Channel 4 News.
"Why was it so hard to just say, 'Yes, we apologize and we're gonna figure out who's responsible'?" asked Abrams.
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"Once we know the facts," Heinrich explained, to which Abrams replied, "Really? You have to wait?"
"Tragedies do happen during wars," she said during their exchange. "That's my point."