Will the missile attack that killed aid workers change Israeli minds about the Gaza war?

In the hours after seven members of his World Cen‐ tral Kitchen team were killed by a series of Israeli missile strikes on their aid convoy, grieving chef José Andrés wrote a remarkable letter addressed to all Is‐ raelis.

Published on Ynet, the on‐ line version of the Yedioth Ahronot newspaper and a major news source for Is‐ raelis, the piece by the U.S.based founder of WCK ap‐ pealed to the people of Is‐ rael's morality.

"Israel is better than the way this war is being waged," Andrés wrote. "It is better than blocking food andmedi‐ cine to civilians. It is better than killing aid workers who co-ordinate their movements with the [Israel Defence Forces]."

Founded by Andrés, Wor‐ ld Central Kitchen delivers meals to people in natural disaster or conflict zones.

In the days and weeks af‐ ter the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, Andrés's team served more than 1.75 million hot meals to Israelis while many were still reeling from the horrific events and feeling profoundly vulnera‐ ble.

Weeks later, Andrés's teams shifted their efforts to war-torn Gaza, where the NGO has gone on to serve more than 45 million meals to desperately hungry Pales‐ tinians.

The need in the territory remains greater than ever, but on Tuesday, Andrés an‐ nounced that because of the Israeli attack on his team, he was putting the food pro‐ gram in Gaza on hold. The group was also responsible for running a sea supply route between Cyprus and Gaza, and put that on hold on Tuesday as well, turning around a vessel that was poised to deliver more than 200 tonnes of food.

WATCH | World Central Kitchen halts operations in Gaza after Israeli missile strike:

Israeli Prime Minister Ben‐ jamin Netanyahu acknowl‐ edged the missile attack and called the deaths "tragic" but also cautioned that "this hap‐ pens in wartime." Andrés re‐ jected this explanation and implored Israel's govern‐ ment, and especially ordinary Israelis, to think about how the conflict is unfolding.

"You cannot win this war by starving an entire popula‐ tion," he wrote.

The question is whether the killing of six foreign aid workers (the seventh WCK worker killed was a local Palestinian) will prompt Israel to rethink its war strategy when the deaths of more than 32,000 Palestinians - in‐ cluding 180 humanitarian workers - so far has not. 'Something has gone horribly wrong'

Long-time Israel watchers be‐ lieve the odds are not promising.

"Something has gone hor‐ ribly wrong in the moral fibre of the society, of the mili‐ tary," said Daniel Levy, of the U.S./Middle East Project, who served on Israel's peace ne‐ gotiation team during the 1990s.

"Israel has self-censored," he told CBC News, suggesting Israelis are so fixated on the idea of defeating Hamas that they have blocked out no‐ tions of right and wrong.

"We have been given layer after layer of pre-emptive justifications [by the govern‐ ment] for what, tragically, in‐ creasingly, looks like the com‐ mitting of war crimes on the part of Israel."

While thousands of Is‐ raelis have staged public protests against Netanyahu, particularly over the govern‐ ment's failure to liberate Hamas and that the observa‐ hostages that remain in the tions of its own soldiers indi‐ hands of Hamas, some cate food is plentiful, includ‐ polling suggests Israelis are ing in markets. still broadly in favour of the COGAT's observations war. have been refuted by the U.S.

The U.S. State Depart‐ State Department as well as ment, United Nations agen‐ by Palestinians in Gaza who cies and multiple aid groups told CBC News food scarcity have deplored the lack of hu‐ is widespread. manitarian assistance that Is‐ U.S. State Department of‐ rael is allowing into Gaza and ficials told Reuters that at warned about the risk of most, 250 aid trucks were en‐ starvation. tering Gaza daily, whereas

In recent days, however, 400 to 500 were required be‐ the Israeli government fore the war. And since the agency that oversees aid de‐ fighting has halted farming liveries into Gaza has fought and domestic food produc‐ back, by claiming the threat tion, far more aid is needed of starvation in Gaza is now. overblown. WATCH | Gazans fear loss of vital food source as WCK pulls out:

Israel's government has banned the UN refugee agency, UNRWA, from mak‐ ing food deliveries in northern Gaza, where hunger is most acute. It accuses the

Food shortages

In its own report, the Coordi‐ nation of Government Activi‐ ties in the Territories (COGAT) said the United Nations is overstating the severity of hunger in Gaza because it re‐ lies on data provided by

agency of promoting Hamas's ideology and claims several UNRWA employees took part in the Oct. 7 at‐ tacks. Canada and other for‐ eign governments say they have yet to see concrete evi‐ dence of that.

Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, recently returned from a trip to Gaza and said Israel could quickly alleviate hunger in northern Gaza if it opened up two northern crossing points, which it has refused to do.

Levy says the Israeli gov‐ ernment made the "decision to target the civilian popula‐ tion from Day 1."

"The very first announce‐ ment that came out [from Is‐ rael's government] was that we will stop food, fuel, water, electricity from Gaza," he said. entering

Little discussion in Is‐ raeli media

The Israel Defence Forces have promised a transparent investigation into the April 2 attack on the World Central Kitchen workers, and the IDF leadership reiterated that its fight is against Hamas, not ordinary Palestinians.

But some analysts sug‐ gest the absence of much discussion in Israeli media about the horrendous Pales‐ tinian civilian casualties sug‐ gests people there have tuned out the suffering.

"Such 'collateral damage' is taken as acceptable," said Mairav Zonszein of the nonprofit International Crisis Group, who's based in Tel Aviv.

With regards to the killing of the foreign aid workers, Zonszein says "mistakes" by the IDF that lead to civilian deaths have become com‐ monplace.

"Those mistakes happen so often that there's clearly a problem - a problem with how the army is functioning," said Zonszein.

'Some people with sleep without food'

How much soul-searching Is‐ raelis will do over the con‐ duct of the war as a result of the deaths of the seven NGO workers remains to be seen. But the immediate impact of the missile strike on the con‐ voy is already being felt.

A freelance journalist working for CBC News visited one of the group's shuttered kitchens in the southern

Gaza city of Rafah on Tues‐ day, following news the group was halting opera‐ tions.

WATCH | Head of soup kitchen in Gaza struggles to find basic ingredients:

"I honestly don't know what I will do with my family, but I think it will be hope‐ less," said Fares El Masry, who was displaced to Rafah from his home in Beit Lahia. "There are a lot of people who depend on the kitchens."

In a report last month, World Central Kitchen said it was providing the majority of NGO aid in Gaza, accounting for 62 per cent of the meals served to people there.

Nihad Abu Kwaik, who worked at the WCK kitchen in Rafah, said people in Gaza will suffer without the ser‐ vices Andrés's team provided.

"Some people will sleep without food," he told CBC News.

Late Tuesday night, the head of the IDF, Herzi Halevi, said he received a prelimi‐ nary report that the attack on the World Central Kitchen team was a result of "misidentification" in "com‐ plex conditions."

"Israel is creating not only a breakdown of order, but then the people who try to fill it are also being targeted," said Zonszein.

"It's very hard not to see this as some kind of strategy of using aid as a weapon."

WATCH | World Central Kitchen founder José An‐ drés spoke to CBC News in February: