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Seven aid workers, including foreigners, from the non-profit organization World Central Kitchen were killed in an Israeli attack while delivering food to starving civilians in the Gaza Strip.
World Central Kitchen said the aid workers were traveling through a “non-conflict area” in two armored cars and a “soft-skin vehicle” bearing the charity’s logo.
“Despite coordinating movements with the Israel Defense Forces, [Israel Defense Forces]”The team was leaving a warehouse in Deir al-Balah, where they were offloading more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid that had been transported to Gaza by sea, when the convoy was struck,” the group said in a statement.
The group said those killed included dual citizens of the United States and Canada, as well as three people from Australia, Poland, the United Kingdom and one Palestinian.
Footage obtained by CNN shows the bloody bodies of several victims wearing World Central Kitchen vests after an airstrike in the central city of Deir al-Balah.
World Central Kitchen said it had suspended operations following the deadly attack and was assessing the future of its operations in Gaza.
“Today, we, World Central Kitchen and the world are saddened by the loss of a beautiful life to a targeted attack by the Israeli Defense Forces,” World Central Kitchen CEO Erin Gore said in a statement. I am heartbroken and appalled.”
“Their love of feeding people, the determination they embodied to show that humanity is better than anything else, and the impact they had on countless lives will be forever remembered and cherished. “I guess so,” Gore added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged on Tuesday that aid workers had been “unintentionally” targeted.
“Unfortunately, last week saw a tragic incident in which our troops unintentionally attacked innocent people in the Gaza Strip,” Prime Minister Netanyahu said in a video posted on social media. “It happened in a war and we are investigating it thoroughly. We are in contact with the government and will do everything we can to prevent something like this from happening in the future.”
The IDF previously said it was “conducting a thorough investigation at the highest level to understand the circumstances of this tragic incident.”
IDF Spokesman Maj. Gen. Daniel Hagari spoke with Jose Andres, founder of World Central Kitchen, and expressed his deep condolences to the families of the Israel Defense Forces and the entire World Central Kitchen family. ” he said.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has also been in contact with Andres, a senior administration official told CNN on Tuesday.
Ahmed Zakot/Reuters
A World Central Kitchen relief worker looks at a vehicle killed in an airstrike.
The Washington, D.C.-based charity provides meals to disaster-hit areas and communities around the world. It is one of the few aid organizations delivering much-needed food in the Gaza Strip, where aid agencies warn 2.2 million people don’t have enough to eat and half of the population lives in the Strip. It is. Hunger and the brink of starvation Because of Israel Narrowing down aid and widespread destruction.
“today @WCKitchen We lost some of our sisters and brothers to IDF airstrikes in Gaza,” said Andres, founder of the charity. I wrote to X. “We are heartbroken and saddened by their families and friends and our entire WCK family.”
“The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing. It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon,” he added.
“These are people… angels… I served with them in Ukraine, Gaza, Turkey, Morocco, the Bahamas, Indonesia. They are not faceless… They are not nameless.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese identified the Australian victim as Lalzaumi “Zomi” Francom.
“This is a person who volunteered in Australia to help people during the bushfires. This is a person who has traveled overseas to provide aid through this charity to people suffering from severe poverty in Gaza. He was a volunteer,” Albanese said.
“Australia expects full responsibility for the deaths of aid workers and this is completely unacceptable.”
He said the Australian government had already been in direct contact with the Israeli government and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade had requested a “summoning” of Israel’s ambassador to Australia.
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Polish authorities confirmed that one of the Polish nationals, Damian Sobol from the town of Przemysl, was also killed.
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said he had personally asked the envoy to Israel to provide an “urgent” briefing. Sikorski said he was confident that “Poland will soon receive the results of the investigation into this tragedy.”
Britain also summoned an Israeli envoy to the country over the incident. The country’s Minister of State for Development and Africa announced that three British nationals had been killed in the airstrike.
Saif Issam Abu-Taha, a Palestinian driver and translator working at World Central Kitchen, was named one of the victims by Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Hamas condemned the attack in a statement on Tuesday and called on the international community and the United Nations to “take action.”
“This crime is a continuing policy of the deliberate killing of innocent civilians, international relief teams, and humanitarian organizations by occupation forces in an attempt to terrorize those working there and prevent them from carrying out their humanitarian duties. This confirms once again that the government is committed to achieving this goal,” the group said. That statement.
Adrian Watson, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, said on the X program that the White House was “saddened and deeply troubled” by the killings. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the Chinese government was “shocked” by the attack.
Other charities were also quick to mourn the loss and praise World Central Kitchen’s efforts to help those in need in the face of danger.
Matthew Hollingworth, the World Food Program’s Palestine director, praised the “life-saving work” of those killed, while Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, called for an immediate ceasefire.
“Nowhere else have so many aid workers been killed,” Egeland said.
World Central Kitchen/X
Australian national Lalzaumi “Zomi” Francome (left) was among those confirmed killed.
Barak Rabid, Middle East expert and CNN political and world affairs analyst, said his sources in Israel described “confusion” and “embarrassment” following the death of a World Central Kitchen employee. said.
World Central Kitchen was “an NGO that the IDF worked very closely with, and part of World Central Kitchen’s work was transporting food across the sea to Gaza,” Rabid said. Ta.
“IDF wanted to show that by working with this organization, we are addressing food insecurity in Gaza,” he added. “And now, several days later, the IDF has allegedly attacked aid workers for this organization.”
Chris Cobb-Smith, a former British Army artillery officer and munitions expert, said the extensive damage to three vehicles seen in videos and images from the scene was consistent with the use of “high-precision drone-launched missiles”. Ta. He said it was “hard to believe” that the tragic incident was an accident, but warned that missile debris from the scene needed to be examined for a thorough analysis.
Cobbsmith said the drone that fired the deadly missile would have been operating in conjunction with surveillance drones, meaning the Israeli military would have had full visibility of the vehicle, meaning at least two of them would have had the World Central Kitchen logo on it, he said. their roof.
Rabid noted that this is not the first time aid workers have allegedly been attacked by Israeli forces. The majority of aid workers killed were Palestinians and their families.
At least 165 staff members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) have been killed since the latest war began following a Hamas rampage of murders and kidnappings in southern Israel on October 7. The agency announced this last month.
Following Monday’s tragedy, another aid organization, American Near East Refugee Assistance (Anera), suspended operations in Gaza to protect its staff.
“It is no longer possible to safely deliver aid,” Anera said in a statement.
In recent years, World Central Kitchen has provided food relief to thousands of people after an earthquake devastated Haiti, Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, wildfires burned Southern California and the refugee crisis intensified on the Venezuelan border. The adjustment became a hot topic.
In March, the nonprofit led an effort to transport 200 tons of food aid to Gaza, which it said was the first sea shipment of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave.
The shipment included food for 500,000 meals that World Central Kitchen was scheduled to distribute across the Strip. hundreds of thousands of people People are on the brink of starvation.
Cypriot President Nicos Christodoulides said on Tuesday that the maritime corridor from Cyprus to Gaza would remain open despite the attack.
“Tragic events should not discourage us,” Christodoulides said. “As needs increase dramatically, we must redouble our efforts to provide more support.”
This is a developing story and is being updated.
CNN’s Benjamin Brown said: Tara Alrajar Radina Gigova and Antonia Mortensen contributed to this report
