Israel kills seven Gaza aid workers, pausing group’s operations
Netanyahu calls deaths mistake, but charity’s leader says food being used as ‘weapon of war’
Israeli strikes on an aid convoy run by the charity group World Central Kitchen killed seven of its workers in the Gaza Strip, setting off international outrage and underscoring the risks to humanitarian workers trying to alleviate a looming famine.
The aid workers — a Palestinian, an Australian, a Pole, three Britons and a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen — were traveling in two armored vehicles clearly marked with the World Central Kitchen logo and a third vehicle when they came under fire late Monday night, according to the charity.
The convoy was hit despite having coordinated its movements with the Israeli military, the group said. The workers were leaving a warehouse in Deir al Balah, in central Gaza, where the team had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid that had arrived by boat Monday, World Central Kitchen said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who rarely comments on deadly strikes in Gaza, released a videotaped statement Tuesday in which he appeared to acknowledge the Israeli military was responsible. Israel launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the strikes.
“Unfortunately, in the last day there was a tragic case of our forces unintentionally hitting innocent people in the Gaza Strip,” Netanyahu said. “It happens in war, we are fully examining this, we are in contact with the governments and we will do everything so that this thing does not happen again.”
World Central Kitchen, which was founded by renowned chef José Andrés, said Tuesday it was suspending operations in the territory.
“This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war,” Erin Gore, the group’s CEO, said in a statement. “This is unforgivable.”
Several nations, including the home countries of the people killed, voiced indignation and demanded explanations. David Cameron, the British foreign secretary, called their deaths “completely unacceptable” in a social media post, adding, “Israel must urgently explain how this happened and make major changes to ensure the safety of aid workers.”
White House spokesperson John Kirby said the United States was “outraged” and that the attack was “emblematic of a larger problem.”
Videos and photos verified by The New York Times suggest the convoy was hit multiple times. The imagery shows three destroyed white vehicles, with the northernmost and southernmost vehicles nearly 1½ miles apart.
The World Central Kitchen logo could be seen on items inside the charred interior of the northernmost and southernmost cars. The car in the middle was left with a gaping hole in its roof, emblazoned with the group’s logo. All three vehicles, though far apart from one another, were on or near the same coastal road.
World Central Kitchen had recently become an important player in the delivery of aid into Gaza, organizing two shipments of food that had arrived in the territory by boat from Cyprus, a maritime route intended to supplement the limited aid that has been delivered by trucks and dropped from airplanes.
The group was trying to help ease widespread hunger in Gaza, where Palestinians, particularly in the north, have been fighting starvation and regularly converge on the relatively few aid trucks that enter the territory.
After the attack on World Central Kitchen workers, other aid groups said they were also reassessing their plans. American Near East Refugee Aid, or Anera, said it was suspending operations in Gaza, given the rising threats to aid workers.
“Everybody feels endangered now,” said Michael Capponi, founder of Global Empowerment Mission, a nonprofit aid group.