The incident, which led to the deaths of international volunteers from the NGO World Central Kitchen, has strained Warsaw's relations with Israel, challenging the "full solidarity" that "the vast majority of Poles showed" with Israel after the Hamas attack on October 7, according to Tusk.
"Mr. Prime Minister Netanyahu, Mr. Ambassador Livne, the vast majority of Poles showed full solidarity with Israel after the Hamas attack," Tusk wrote in a social media post on Wednesday, responding to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ambassador Yaakov Livne's remarks on the tragedy.
Tusk said: "Today you are putting this solidarity to a really hard test. The tragic attack on volunteers and your reaction arouse understandable anger."
Netanyahu has described the incident as a "tragic event in which our forces unintentionally harmed non-combatants in the Gaza Strip," according to a report by Polish state news agency PAP, while Livne's comments sparked further controversy after the Israeli envoy suggested that criticism of Israel's actions stemmed from antisemitism.
Polish FM urges 'impartial investigation'
Poland's Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski on Wednesday called for "an apology and compensation" if Israel deliberately attacked the humanitarian convoy, emphasizing the need for a transparent investigation, as promised by the Israeli ambassador, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
Speaking to Polish Radio on Wednesday morning, Sikorski criticized the justification of civilian casualties, telling Polish Radio that Warsaw "recognizes Israel's right to self-defense, but not to abuse force."
He emphasized that Poland also recognizes the right of the Palestinians to statehood, and that this nation, deprived of civil rights, has been suffering under Israeli occupation for decades, according to the IAR news agency.
In a conversation with Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Tuesday, Sikorski "called for an impartial investigation into the attack on a humanitarian convoy in Gaza in which a Polish citizen was killed," according to the Polish foreign ministry.
Sikorski told his Israeli counterpart that the incident was being investigated by Polish prosecutors and that "for the credibility of Israel's actions and the future of peace in the Middle East it is essential that the current military action in Gaza be accompanied by a political process and the presentation of proposals to the Palestinian people," the Polish foreign ministry said in a statement.
According to reports, the World Central Kitchen’s three-car convoy was targeted by three separate strikes by Israeli forces on Monday, killing seven humanitarian aid workers: three British nationals, a Polish citizen, an Australian, a dual US-Canada national, and a Palestinian.
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Source: PAP, IAR, Reuters, BBC
Click on the audio player above for a report by Radio Poland's Marcin Matuszewski.