Canadian man killed providing aid in Gaza was a military veteran with a young son

A Canadian man killed Monday along with six other aid workers in the Gaza Strip was a military veteran from Quebec whose death leaves behind a partner and a one-year-old son.

Jacob Flickinger, 33, joined the World Central Kitchen aid organization last fall at the urging of his good friend Jonathan Duguay. Flickinger had been helping the group in Gaza since early March.

“Jacob was a fantastic guy,” Duguay said in an interview. The two met in 2010 when they were serving together in Afghanistan, he added.

“He was always supportive, always smiling.” Duguay himself joined World Central Kitchen in September, helping with food aid in Morocco following the devastating earthquake near Marrakesh. In November he convinced Flickinger to come on board.

Their first aid mission was in Mexico, providing food after Hurricane Otis slammed into the Acapulco area as a category five storm.

“We were both diagnosed with PTSD after Afghanistan,” Duguay said. “This (aid work) changed my life, changed our lives. We used our military skills to bring solutions in chaos.”

Flickinger wasn’t scared or apprehensive, said Duguay. “He just wanted to help people.”

Flickinger’s father, John, said in a Facebook post that his son’s death is a “heartbreaking tragedy.”

“My son, Jacob, was killed Monday delivering food aid to starving families in Gaza,” John Flickinger wrote. “He died doing what he loved and serving others through his work with the World Central Kitchen.”

A Go Fund Me page has been started to raise funds for a funeral and a trust fund for Flickinger’s son. Nearly $30,000 had already been raised by Wednesday evening.

Flickinger was among the seven aid workers who were killed by an Israeli airstrikes hit — an attack the Israeli government has characterized as a tragic mistake.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called their deaths inadvertent — something that “happens in war,” he said.

Canada, alongside Poland, the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States, is demanding more of an explanation.

“The world needs very clear answers as to how this happened,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday.