Canadian killed in Israeli airstrike
• Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly condemned an airstrike launched by the Israeli military that killed seven aid workers in the Gaza Strip, including a dual Canadian-american citizen.
The World Central Kitchen said its workers were delivering food that had arrived by sea on Monday when they were struck in the evening.
The organization said the team was travelling in vehicles that included two armoured cars branded with the World Central Kitchen logo, and that it had co-ordinated its movement with the Israeli military.
It said in addition to the dual Canadian citizen, the strike killed three British nationals, an Australian, a Polish national and a Palestinian.
The charity suspended operations in the region following the attack. World Central Kitchen was founded by celebrity chef Jose Andres and operates in several countries wracked by wars or natural disasters.
In a statement Tuesday morning posted on X, formerly Twitter, Joly said she was “horrified” to hear about the airstrike, adding attacks on humanitarian workers are unacceptable.
“We condemn these strikes and call for a full investigation,” she said. “Canada expects full accountability for these killings and we will convey this to the Israeli government directly.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged that the Israel Defense Forces carried out the “unintended strike,” which killed “innocent people.”
He said officials are investigating and “will do everything for this not to happen again.”
The charity was key to a recently opened sea route that offered some hope for northern Gaza.
The United Nations says much of the area’s population is on the brink of starvation, largely cut off from the rest of the territory by Israeli forces.
Andres said he is “heartbroken” by the deaths of his colleagues.
Footage of the airstrike showed the workers’ bodies, several wearing protective gear with the charity’s logo, at a hospital in the central Gaza town of Deir al-balah.
The airstrike late Monday came hours after Israeli forces withdrew from the burnt-out ruins of Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, allowing Palestinians and journalists to survey the devastation after a two-week raid that destroyed what was once the largest medical centre in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military says the raid targeted Hamas fighters grouped inside.
The names of the aid workers have not been released but a friend of the Australian victim identified her as 43-year-old Lalzawmi Frankcom.
Josh Phelps, who left the food charity in 2021, said he had texted Frankcom the day before the attack, and she responded with a heart. Hours later, she was dead.