Relatives and friends carry the body of a staff member of the US-based aid group World Central Kitchen, who was killed as Israeli strikes hit a convoy of the NGO delivering food aid in Gaza a day earlier, during his funeral in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on April 2, 2024. (PHOTO / AFP)

JERUSALEM - Israel's military said Wednesday that the result of a preliminary debrief into the killing of seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) workers by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza was the result of "a misidentification".

"I want to be very clear - the strike was not carried out with the intention of harming WCK aid workers," Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi said in a video statement.

"It was a mistake that followed a misidentification - at night during a war in very complex conditions," he said. "It shouldn't have happened."

His statement followed calls by Israeli allies, including the United States, demanding a full and independent investigation into the incident.

According to a statement from WCK, a US-based organization, the seven staff members - from Palestine, Australia, Poland, Britain, and one holding dual US-Canadian citizenship - were delivering aid in a convoy to famine-stricken Gaza. 

They were killed in a "targeted attack" by the Israeli military, said WCK, urging Israel to stop "this indiscriminate killing" in Gaza.