The United States has welcomed Israel taking “full responsibility” for killing seven aid workers in Gaza, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying Washington would follow up with Israeli officials in the coming days, AFP reports.

“It’s very important that Israel is taking full responsibility for this incident. It’s also important that it appears to be taking steps to hold those responsible accountable,” Blinken said as he boarded a flight after a three-day visit to Brussels.

“Even more important is making sure that steps are taken going forward to ensure that something like this can never happen again,” he said.

Blinken noted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to US President Joe Biden to change his country’s military procedures so that aid workers in Gaza would be protected in future.

“We’re going to be looking very carefully at what those steps are, how it achieves better de-confliction, better coordination so that aid workers are protected,” Blinken said.

He said the US government will “very carefully” review Israel’s probe into the killings and “we’ll be discussing its conclusions with Israeli officials and with humanitarian organisations in the days to come”.