TEHRAN- The killing of Western aid workers by the Israeli occupation forces was very deliberate. The nature of the attack leaves no room for debate.

The deadly assault that has been described in forensic detail in various media makes it impossible to claim any form of error. 

Israeli media reports on the breakdown in discipline at the Israeli front line with the regime’s military commanders across Gaza essentially pursuing their own idea of what is and what is not a justifiable target has only come to light after the killing of the foreign aid volunteers. 

This is a crucial part of the tragedy that has unfolded in Gaza as many senior UN officials had indicated the same lack of Israeli army discipline over the past six months. Children have reportedly been shot at point blank range at hospitals. 

The speed with which Western leaders and media have turned against the Israeli occupation has taken many by surprise. 

On Friday, the White House released a readout of a phone call between Joe Biden and Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu. 

According to the White House, the U.S. president “made clear the need for Israel” to implement “concrete” steps to address civilian harm and the safety of humanitarian workers. 

British officials and media have expressed outrage as six foreign nationals were killed by Israeli drones while trying to distribute aid for the international food charity, World Central Kitchen. 
Critics have questioned why the Western news coverage and narrative has twisted so suddenly now. 
While every death by the Israeli occupation forces in Gaza is a tragedy, the only real aspect that has changed is the passport and nationality of the victims. 

The Israeli air and ground assaults have killed more than 33,000 Palestinians since October 7, the majority of whom have been women and children. 

The dead Palestinians did not receive any sympathy from the Israeli regime’s staunchest allies, which continuously carried a political and media narrative that defended the oppressor and invader against the oppressed Palestinians. 

Yet since the deadly Israeli attack against foreigners on Tuesday, strong Western criticism against the Israeli occupation has been made from presidents, prime ministers and all the way down. 

On the protection of aid workers following the deaths of foreign humanitarian volunteers in Gaza, the White House said “President Biden emphasized [to Netanyahu] that the strikes on humanitarian workers and the overall humanitarian situation are unacceptable. 

“He made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers.” 

Biden has spoken out strongly as one of the six foreign aid workers was an American-Canadian citizen. 

Critics have questioned why Biden did not speak out over the roughly 200 Palestinian aid workers murdered by Israeli forces in Gaza over the past six months? 

The testimonies of the families and former colleagues of the Western victims have been widely reported on by the Western media (and rightly so). 

The testimonies of the families of more than 33,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli warplanes, drones, tanks and artillery fire have been largely ignored by Western media?.

In an ideal world, the loss of innocent life in Gaza would be universally abhorrent. 

This is despite footage that has been aired on Western media (albeit on a limited scale to what regional media are broadcasting), showing the scale of the death and destruction in Gaza. 

If anything, the killing of foreign nationals should throw into disarray any attempt to portray the Israeli occupation forces as having conducted their attacks responsibly or targeting military sites. 

The speedy Israeli military investigation on Friday makes it abundantly evident that the regime’s military has made the same “errors” when killing Palestinian civilians, whose cases haven’t even been investigated. 

Questions have been raised about a certain level of racism. 

Did the color and ethnicity of the six foreign victims bring the calamity in Gaza closer to the West? In which case does that make the record number of Palestinians killed by Israeli bombs less human than the white victims of Israeli bombs in Gaza? 

The matter is a stark reminder of how Ukrainian refugees fleeing a warzone were welcomed into Europe for being White and African refugees fleeing warzones as well were turned away, at the same time, for being black. 

In Gaza, the death of foreigners working for the World Central Kitchen, which prompted the sudden shift, has turned many former pro-Israeli cheerleaders into critics of Tel Aviv and its genocidal war on Gaza. 

Unfortunately, there tends to be a default starting position for some in the West that Palestinians are bad and Israelis are good. 

The senseless killing of Western aid volunteers has now made it impossible for many former pro-Israeli supporters to justify what the regime is doing. 

The unfortunate part is that it took six months for many Westerners to change their position. 

The other unfortunate aspect to all this is the U.S. and other staunch supporters of Tel Aviv. Despite the outrage in the West, they continue sending more weapons to Israel to kill more Palestinians. 

Despite some reports indicating a potential change in position to Washington’s support for Tel Aviv, nothing will force President Biden to change his administration’s policy on sending more weapons to Israel. 
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters, “If we don’t see the changes that we need to see, there’ll be changes in our policy.” 

Blinken, unsurprisingly, refused to explain what a change in the White House policy to Tel Aviv would be. 

There is no chance the U.S. will cut the weapons supply chain to the occupation regime. Biden will not allow this, and neither Congress. 

Observing the White House statement on Biden’s phone call with Netanyahu, it talked about the U.S. policy “with respect to Gaza” and later highlighted “President Biden made clear that the United States strongly supports Israel”. 

What has also slipped many minds is that the charity World Central Kitchen announced the death of seven volunteers in its aid convey inside Gaza. 

While six of the international food charity’s volunteers were citizens of the UK, Australia, Poland, and a duel U.S.-Canadian, the seventh was announced as a “citizen of Palestine”. 

Very little Western media have reported on the “citizen of Palestine” on an incident that has been covered extensively with every foreign national being named and praised with the exception of the Palestinian.

Saifeddin Abutaha has received little to zero media coverage.