Seven aid workers killed in Israeli strike in Gaza
DEIR ALBALAH, GAZA STRIP
An Israeli air strike killed seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen, leading the charity to suspend delivery on Tuesday of vital food aid to Gaza, where Israel’s offensive has pushed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to the brink of starvation.
Ships still laden with some 240 tonnes of aid that arrived just a day earlier turned back from Gaza, according to Cyprus, which has played a key role in trying to establish a sea route to bring food to territory. Israel has only allowed a trickle of aid into devastated northern Gaza, where experts say famine is imminent.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged that the country’s forces had carried out the “unintended strike ... on innocent people”. He said officials were looking into the strike and would work to ensure it did not happen again.
Footage showed the bodies, several wearing protective gear with the charity’s logo, at a hospital in the central Gaza town of Deir alBalah. Those killed include three British nationals, an Australian, a Polish national, an AmericanCanadian dual citizen and a Palestinian, according to hospital records.
Other footage of the aftermath of the strike showed a vehicle with the charity’s logo printed across its roof to make it identifiable from the air. The projectile had punched a large hole through the roof.
In the face of a growing humanitarian disaster in Gaza’s north, several countries worked to open a sea route, hoping it would allow more aid to enter. The United States and other countries have also airdropped aid but humanitarian workers say such efforts on their own are insufficient.
World Central Kitchen, a food charity founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, was key to the new route. Israel has barred UNRWA, the main UN agency in Gaza, from making deliveries to the north and other aid groups say sending truck convoys north has been extremely difficult because of the military’s failure to either grant permission or ensure safe passage.
Mr. Andrés — whose charity operates in several countries wracked by wars or natural disasters, including Israel after the October 7 attack that triggered the war — said he was “heartbroken” by the deaths.